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KEPORT OF THE COMMISSION 



TO INVESTIGATE 



The Public Charitable and Reform- 
atory Interests and Institutions 
of the Commonwealth. 






February, 1897. 



BOSTON : 

WRIGHT & POTTEK PRINTING CO , STATE PRINTERS 

18 Post Office Square 

1897. 



tf^rf 



vif 






JAN 25 1904 
D.ofD, 



Comm0ttiaeal;t{j ri IPassaxfjn&ette* 



State Hovse, Boston, February 1, 1897. 
To Sis Excellency the Governor and the Honorable Council. 

The undersigned, members of the Commission created by 
the following Resolve — 



-e 



[Chap. 60.] 
Resolve to authorize the appointment of a commission to 

investigate the charitable and reformatory interests and 

institutions of the commonwealth. 

Resolved, That the governor, by and with the advice of the 
council, be and he is hereby authorized to appoint a commission, 
consisting of three persons, to investigate the public charitable 
and reformatory interests and institutions of the Commonwealth ; 
to inquire into the expediency of revising the system of adminis- 
tering the same and of revising all existing laws in regard to 
pauperism and insanity, including all laws relating to pauper set- 
tlements ; and furthermore to inquire into the relation of pauper- 
ism and insanity to crime, with a view to securing economy and 
efficiency in the care of the poor and insane in this Commonwealth. 
Said commission may employ a stenographer, shall have power to 
send for persons and papers, and may incur such expenses and 
receive such compensation for their services as the governor and 
council may determine. Said commission shall submit its report 
in print, with a bill or bills, if practicable, to the governor and 
council before the first day of February in the year eighteen hun- 
dred and ninety-seven. {Approved April 13, 1896. 

herewith present their report. 

WILLIAM F. WHARTON. 
CHARLES F. FOLSOM. 
DAVIS R. DEWEY. 



Report of the Commission on 

Charitable and Reformatory Interests 
and Institutions. 



The commission organized on Monday, May 11, 1896, 
and began hearings on May 26, 1896. We were de- 
sirous of conferring with every person or association of 
persons who could furnish any information upon the sub- 
jects referred to us in the resolution under which we were 
organized. We therefore invited all persons informed and 
interested in these subjects to present their views. We 
held thirty-eight private hearings, and advertised and held 
two public hearings in June. We also advertised in news- 
papers published in different parts of the Commonwealth 
on November 11, 14, 18, 21 and 28, 1896, to the effect 
that we were prepared to give hearings, either public or 
private, to any persons who had any matters to present 
for our consideration. To these notices no response was 
made asking for public hearings. A few persons re- 
quested to be heard privately, and they were so heard. 

We have, in conformity with what we believed to be the 
intention of the Legislature, included in our investigation 
questions arising as to the system of administration of the 
penal as well as the charitable and reformatory institutions. 
We have been led, moreover, to do this because the sub- 
jects were so closely connected that they were often difficult 
to separate in our deliberations. We have endeavored to 
make the recommendations hereinafter set out conform 



6 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

to the best development not only of the institutions them- 
selves but also of the general charitable and reformatory 
interests of the Commonwealth. We have considered 
the existing laws in regard to pauperism and insanity 
and the laws relating to pauper settlements. The time 
allowed us has not permitted our inquiring into the 
large subject of the relation of pauperism and insanity to 
crime in such manner as to present any views that we 
feel would be of value to the Commonwealth. We suggest 
that, if it be deemed best that an inquiry should be made 
into this subject, the work be assigned to some other 
board or commission, perhaps to the State Board of In- 
sanity and the State Board of Charity acting together, if 
created in accordance with the recommendations of this 
report. 

We concluded, early in our work, that, in view of the 
time fixed for our making a report, it was not the expec- 
tation of the Legislature that we should undertake a 
minute investigation of the several State institutions ; and 
we have consequently devoted ourselves to the examina- 
tion and consideration of the system of administering 
the institutions and of the laws affecting them, and the 
general interests referred to in the resolve under which 
we were appointed, with a view to presenting such changes 
in these matters as might recommend themselves to us 
from our own observation and study and from the sug- 
gestions made to us by those persons who were experi- 
enced and interested. 

We have consulted with the State Board of Lunacy and 
Charity and with their officers upon several occasions, and 
we have given hearings to the trustees of the Lyman and In- 
dustrial Schools and to the superintendent of the former, 
the trustees and the superintendents of the State Alms- 
house and the State Farm, the trustees and superintend- 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 7 

cut of the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipsomaniacs and 
Inebriates, the trustees and the superintendents of the 
several lunatic hospitals in the Commonwealth, the Com- 
missioners of Prisons, the warden of the State Prison, 
the superintendents of the Massachusetts Reformatory and 
of the Reformatory Prison for Women, the Children's 
Aid Society, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the 
Boston Medico-Psychological Society, the Massachusetts 
Homoeopathic Medical Society, the Massachusetts Prison 
Association, the Massachusetts Association of Relief Offi- 
cers, the Institutions Commissioner of the city of Bos- 
ton, the sheriffs and county commissioners of the several 
counties in the Commonwealth and the probation officers of 
Boston and Springfield. We have offered opportunities 
to the mayors of the different cities of the Common- 
wealth to consult with us, and many valuable suggestions 
have been offered by those officials. We have further 
communicated with the Chief justice and justices of the 
superior court and with the Chief justice and justices of 
the municipal court of the city of Boston, and the judges 
of the other municipal, police and district courts of the 
Commonwealth, from many of whom we have received 
most valuable suggestions. 

We have moreover consulted with every person indi- 
vidually who desired to offer any suggestions upon the 
subjects which we have had under consideration. 

We submit herewith our recommendations and sugges- 
tions. 



CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



JUVENILE WARDS. 

According to the report of the State Board of Lunacy 
and Charity of 1895, the number of juvenile wards of the 
Commonwealth at the close of the official year was 2,593. 
These juvenile wards may be classified in the following man- 
ner : — 

First. — Juvenile offenders, being minors between the 
ages of seven and seventeen years, who are guilty of some 
crime or misdemeanor, and who are committed to the Lyman 
School for Boys, to the Industrial School for Girls or to 
the custody of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. 

Second. — Children between three and sixteen years of 
age, who, by reason of orphanage or of the poverty, neglect, 
crime, drunkenness or other vice of parents, are growing up 
without education or salutary control, and in circumstances 
exposing them to lead idle and dissolute lives, or are de- 
pendent upon public charity. These children, if they have 
no known settlement in the Commonwealth, shall be, or if 
their place of legal settlement has not within its control any 
institution in which they may be lawfully maintained, may 
be committed to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. 
Those of them who have a known settlement are com- 
mitted to the overseers of the poor of the city or town in 
which they have such settlement, except in Boston ; and 
if they have a settlement in Boston, they are committed to 
the Institutions Commissioner of the said city. 

Third. — Abandoned, neglected or dependent infants, 
under three years of age. 

By the same report it appears that, of the juvenile of- 
fenders, 264 were at the Lyman School for Boys ; 111 were 
at the State Industrial School for Girls ; 582 were outside 
the schools, but in the custody and control of the trustees 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 9 

of the Lyman and Industrial Schools, and placed out, or 
boarded out by them in their own or other families ; and 
325 were in the care, custody and control of the State Board 
of Lunacy and Charity, making a total of 1,282 juvenile 
offenders. 

Of the so-called dependent and neglected children, in- 
cluding the infants, there were 1,311 in the care and custody 
of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. If we add to 
this last number the 325 juvenile offenders in their care, we 
find that there was at the close of the official year of 1895 a 
total of 1,636 juvenile wards of the Commonwealth who were 
directly under the care, custody and control of the State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity, and were taken care of by 
the in-door and out-door departments of the Board. From 
this it appears that almost two-thirds of the juvenile wards 
of the Commonwealth are now in the direct care, custody 
and control of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, and 
over them there is no supervisory authority except such 
as the Board chooses to exercise itself; while over those 
in the custody and under the control of the trustees of the 
Lyman and Industrial Schools the Board exercises super- 
visory powers. 

We believe that it requires no argument to show that 
the same Board cannot in the nature of things undertake 
the care of a class of State wards, and likewise occupy a 
position of independent criticism of its own w r ork in this 
direction. The only effective supervision is that which is 
exercised by a Board, or by officers, who have no part in 
the duties to be supervised ; and the object of supervision — 
and this is specially applicable to all charitable work — is 
to inquire into the work done, to suggest improvements 
and to correct evils which may be found to exist. 

Supervision by a distinct and separate authority of all 
work done by officers having the care and custody of any 
class of State wards seems to have been the policy of the 
Commonwealth, as indicated by the course of legislation. 
All the State institutions having the care of State paupers 
and juvenile offenders — for instance, the State Almshouse, 
the State Farm, the Lyman School for Boys, the Industrial 



10 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

School for Girls and all the State lunatic hospitals and 
asylums — are governed by boards of trustees, and are sub- 
ject to the supervision of the State Board of Lunacy and 
Charity. The three exceptions in this regard seem to be 
the care and custody of neglected and dependent children 
and of certain juvenile offenders, of insane paupers boarded 
in families and of the Indians who have not acquired settle- 
ments in any town in the Commonwealth. 

The care of the Indians, which was given to the Board 
in 1869 (see P. S., c. 86, § 23), is of so small importance 
that it can well be left with the State Board of Charity 
if created. 

The care of the boarded-out insane was given to the 
State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity in 1885 (St. 
1885, c. 385), and the number of insane persons boarded 
out under its provisions at the time of the last report of the 
State Board of Lunacy and Charity was 142. Our recom- 
mendations upon this subject are found in another part of 
this report, where we deal with the subject of the insane. 

The care of the neglected and dependent children and of 
certain juvenile offenders by the Board seems to be now 
the only important exception to the generally recognized 
rule above stated. Efforts have been made from time to 
time, as is learned from an inspection of the legislation 
of the Commonwealth, to remove this exception. 

The powers given by statutory enactments to the * * Board 
of Commissioners in Relation to Alien Passengers and State 
Paupers," from which Board has originated the present State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity, were of a supervisory and 
quasi-judicial nature. That Board was not given the custody 
and control of any class of State paupers. The executive 
officers whose work was supervised were the superintendents 
of alien passengers created in 1848 (St. 1848, c. 313). 
At that date the State paupers were taken care of by the 
several cities and towns in which they were found, and 
the expense of their support was paid for by the Common- 
wealth. The object of the legislation with reference to the 
alien passengers and State paupers was mainly to prevent 
the advent into the country of aliens likely to become a 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 11 

burden on the State, and to secure adequate indemnity at 
the time of their arrival against the event of their becoming 
such burdens. 

Id 1856 (St. 1856, c. 294), the Board was reorganized 
and the name changed to the "Board of Commissioners on 
Alien Passengers and State Paupers," and all the powers 
and duties of the former Board were conferred upon the 
new Board. It was further provided by § 3 of the above 
statute that the commissioners " shall have the same power 
to bind, as apprentices, minors who are inmates of a hospital 
at Rainsford Island, and the same powers, respectively, in 
relation to any State paupers who are now or may hereafter 
become inmates of the same, or of either of the lunatic 
asylums in this Commonwealth, and their property, if they 
have any, or any property left by them in case of their 
decease, as are by law vested in towns and in the overseers 
of the poor in towns, in reference to those paupers who are 
in any way supported or relieved by towns." This gave 
the Board the entire care and control of the class of State 
paupers therein described, and seems to have been the first 
occasion when the Board was given the care, custody and 
control of any class of State wards. But this legislation 
was not, it seems, acceptable for long ; for, although these 
provisions of law were continued in Gen. Stats., c. 71, 
§§ 1-10, by St. 1863, c. 240, the said Board of Commis- 
sioners on Alien Passengers and State Paupers was abolished, 
and the Board of State Charities and the offices of general 
agent of State charities and of secretary of the Board of State 
Charities were created ; and by § 6 of said act it was pro- 
vided that all the duties then required by law to be per- 
formed by the incumbents of the offices which were abolished 
should be performed by the secretary and general agent 
therein provided for, subject to the control and direction of 
the Board of State Charities ; thus transferring to the officers 
above named the control and custody of the paupers described 
in St. 1856, c. 294, § 3. The general agent and secretary 
were appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent 
of the Council ; and, although they were members ex officio 
of the Board of State Charities, all their work was subject 



12 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

in fact only to the supervision of the Board. They were 
expressly given all the executive and administrative powers 
to perform and duties to fulfil, and the Board could not 
enforce its decision or wishes, if adverse to their action, 
by their removal or in any other effective manner. 

The duties of the Board are thus described in St. 1863, 
c. 240, § 4: "They shall investigate and supervise the 
whole system of the public, charitable and correctional insti- 
tutions of the Commonwealth, and shall recommend such 
changes and additional provisions as they may deem neces- 
sary for their economical and efficient administration. They 
shall have full power to transfer pauper inmates from one 
charitable institution or lunatic hospital to another, and for 
this purpose to grant admittances and discharges to such 
pauper inmates, but shall have no power to make purchases 
for the various institutions." So, too, the visiting agent of 
the Board of State Charities (St. 1870, c. 359), whose duty 
it was to visit all the children maintained wholly or in part 
by the State, or indentured or placed in charge of any per- 
son by any State institution, ward or officer of the Common- 
wealth, was appointed by the Governor, and was an inde- 
pendent officer, whose duties were prescribed by statute. 

In 1870, by the same statute as that which created the 
visiting agent of the Board of State Charities, the Board 
was authorized, under conditions set out in the statute, to 
indenture certain children therein specified, ' * or otherwise 
provide for his or her maintenance during minority, or for 
a less time ; " and it is from that time that the large 
control of juvenile wards of the Commonwealth has grown 
gradually to be an important part of the work of the 
present State Board of Lunacy and Charity. Keference 
to the reports of that Board from year to year will show 
how the number of juvenile wards of the Commonwealth 
has grown from small to large proportions ; and the aboli- 
tion in 1895 of the State Primary School at Monson has 
already been, and will probably be, the cause of many more 
children being placed in the care and custody and under the 
control of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, if it con- 
tinues to exist as at present. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 13 



Department for Children. 

We believe that the work of caring for the State children 
has grown to such proportions that the time has come to re- 
cur, in this instance as well as in others where State paupers 
are cared for, to the old principle of supervision, properly 
so called, and to create separate departments, one to have 
the care, custody and control of the juvenile wards of the 
State, and the other to exercise supervisory powers in rela- 
tion to the work performed. We therefore recommend the 
creation of a department which shall have the care, custody 
and control of all the juvenile wards of the Commonwealth 
who are not in the State Almshouse, or the Lyman School 
for Boys, or the State Industrial School for Girls. We 
further recommend that such department be subject to the 
supervision of the State Board of Charity, as it may be 
created under the recommendation of this report. 

The constitution of this department for the care of juvenile 
wards of the Commonwealth is a question of some difficulty ; 
but we believe that, in view of the peculiar nature of the 
work it has to perform, it would be better to place at the 
head of that department a Board of Trustees of seven persons, 
one of whom shall be selected from the Board of Trustees 
of the Lyman and Industrial Schools, and three of whom at 
least shall be women. This Board would be similar to the 
other Boards having charge of the different charitable insti- 
tutions and lunatic hospitals of the Commonwealth. The 
advantages of such a Board of Trustees, as compared with 
a single head, are apparent, when it is considered that, in 
the care of the juvenile wards of the Commonwealth, educa- 
tional and other questions of much difficulty arise, which can 
be better treated by the combined judgment of several per- 
sons, devoted to and interested in the subject, than by the 
judgment of any one man or woman. 

We recommend that all the juvenile wards of the Com- 
monwealth who are now under the control of the trustees of 
the Lyman and Industrial Schools, outside the schools, shall 
be placed under the care and custody of the department 
above suggested, and that in future, when in the judgment 



14 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

of the trustees of the Lyman and Industrial Schools any 
juvenile ward can be better cared for outside the schools, 
such ward should be placed in the custody and under the 
control of the said department. In recommending that 
one of the members of the board of trustees of the above- 
named schools should likewise be a member of the board 
of trustees of the Department for Children we intend that 
there shall be sympathetic co-operation between the two 
boards. 

The new department might be named the " Department 
for Children," and should be entrusted with all the powers 
and duties relating to the care, custody and control of chil- 
dren now exercised by and incumbent upon the State Board 
of Lunacy and Charity, and performed by it through the 
departments for the in-door and out-door poor, as organized 
at present. It should have full power to appoint such agents 
and other subordinate officers as it deems fit, and to fix their 
compensation, subject to the approval of the Governor and 
Council ; and to it should be transferred the licensing of 
boarding-houses for infants and the prosecution of cases of 
violation of the infant-boarding law. Moreover, the agents 
and other officers of the department should be authorized 
by law to serve all criminal process in juvenile cases, when 
requested to do so by the court or magistrate and also to act 
as probation officers when requested by the court or magis- 
trate ; and should be given the custody of the child during 
the whole, or any part, of the term of the probation, and 
should further be authorized at any time during the period 
of probation to take the child without warrant and surrender 
him or her to the court or magistrate, by whom the proba- 
tion is allowed. These last suggestions are made with a 
view to allow a child to be committed to the care of the 
Department for Children for an indeterminate period, thus 
avoiding the necessity, which has heretofore often occurred, 
of committing a child, guilty of a small offence, to one of 
the State institutions or to the State Board of Lunacy and 
Charity during his or her minority. 

We also recommend that juvenile offenders under twelve 
years of age, who, as the law stands at present, cannot be 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONS 15 

committed to a jail, house of correction or to the State Work- 
house, for non-payment of a fine, may be committed to the 
care and supervision of the Department for Children for a 
term not exceeding thirty days. It is easy to see, as the 
law stands at present, that such children practically go un- 
punished ; and we believe that supervision, such as that sug- 
gested, might have a desirable effect. 

We further recommend that children under fourteen years 
of age, who are held as witnesses, should not be committed 
to a jail, but should be given into the custody of the Depart- 
ment for Children until such time as he or she is needed to 
give his or her testimony. This will be the case where 
a child is unable to furnish bail for examination, or trial. 
(See St. 1882, c. 127, § 2; 1886, c. 101, § 4.) 

We are aware that the creation of this Department for 
Children may involve a somewhat larger expenditure of 
money by the Commonwealth than the system under which 
the children are now cared for. It is difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to foresee exactly how large the amount of the in- 
crease may be ; but there is every reason to believe that the 
advantages to the juvenile wards of the Commonwealth in 
the adoption of the new system will more than counter- 
balance any such additional burden which may be thrown 
upon the Commonwealth for their care and support. More- 
over, we see no reason to anticipate that the new system, if 
properly conducted, will be an expensive one. 

We feel confident that the persons selected by the ap- 
pointing power to fill the positions of trustees of this 
department will be amply able to deal with the questions 
which are presented to their consideration and action. This 
Commonwealth stands well in the vanguard of those States 
of the Union which have adopted the most approved methods 
for the care and treatment of their poor and offending chil- 
dren, and, when we indicate below certain subjects as worthy 
of special attention, we are aware that we are only reiterating 
what has already often been stated before by the official 
authorities of the Commonwealth or by those who have at 
heart the subject with which we are now dealing. 

More good can be done to juvenile offenders by proper 



16 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

intervention at the time when the question first arises of 
what shall be done with them, than at any other period 
of their career. This question originates before some court 
or magistrate of the Commonwealth, before whom the chil- 
dren are brought, to be disposed of as is thought proper 
under the law. Great care should be had to have proper 
officers representing the Department for Children at every 
such hearing, in order that they may investigate into the 
antecedents of each child brought before the court or magis- 
trate, and be able to advise fully as to his or her future dis- 
position. 

Other subjects which will undoubtedly engage the atten- 
tion of both the State Board of Charity and the Department 
for Children, if created, are, whether there are not too 
frequent commitments by the courts and magistrates to 
institutions in cases where children might be better given 
to the care of the Department for Children ; the selection 
and training of visitors for children boarded or placed out, 
and the frequency of visitation upon such children ; whether 
or not the attention of the probation officers should be directed 
to children more than it is at present ; the avoidance of the 
detention of boys and girls in houses of correction ; the 
co-operation of the State authorities with the overseers of 
the poor in all cases where children have settlements, and 
the advisability of the codification of the laws which relate 
to children. 

Truancy. 

The subject of truancy is now under consideration by the 
State Board of Education, and a report upon the subject, 
called for by Res. 1895, c. 47, has already been made to the 
General Court. Upon receipt of that report the General 
Court last year adopted a resolve directing the State Board 
of Education to report to the next General Court a plan for 
carrying into execution the recommendations submitted by 
said Board in its report upon the subject. We feel that it 
was the manifest intention of the General Court that we 
should be relieved of the consideration of this subject, and 
that it should be dealt with by the State Board of Education ; 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 17 

and wo therefore have no recommendations to make upon the 
subject except in one aspect in which the matter has been 
brought particularly to our notice in the course of our ex- 
amination of the treatment of neglected children and juve- 
nile offenders. The county commissioners of the several 
counties are authorized, by P. S., c 220, § 18, to establish 
in each county a house of reformation, to which offenders 
under the age of sixteen years may be sentenced in all cases 
punishable with imprisonment, or for non-payment of fine, 
or fine and costs ; and by § 19 of the same chapter, cities 
and towns in each county may assign such house of refor- 
mation as the institution provided for persons convicted of 
being habitual truants, or of wandering about the streets 
and public places of a city or town, having no lawful em- 
ployment or business, not attending school and growing 
up in ignorance. The collection of truants and juvenile 
offenders in the same building is unfortunate, and a change 
should be made in the law in this respect, so that the two 
classes of children shall be kept apart. We also recom- 
mend, in conformity with the suggestion of the State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity contained in their report 
for 1895, that the law relating to neglected children be so 
amended that such children shall not be sent to the truant 
schools, as is possible under the existing law (St. 1894, 
c. 498, §§ 19, 28). 

Intermediate Reformatory. 

Our attention has been brought to the need of an inter- 
mediate reformatory for boys who are too old to be sent 
under the law to the Lyman School for Boys, and yet seem 
to be too young in years to be advantageously sent to the 
Concord Reformatory. It is somewhat difficult to ascer- 
tain accurately the number of boys that could be sent to 
such an intermediate institution, if created; but we sug- 
gest that the State Board of Charity, if created, together 
with the Commissioners of Prisons, direct their attention to 
the consideration of this matter, and if, in their estimation, 
the number of boys who would be advantageously affected 



18 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



by the creation of such a reformatory is sufficient to authorize 
the expenditure of money by the Commonwealth in its con- 
struction, we should recommend that it be done. Accommo- 
dations for such an institution might be provided by the 
construction of a new building, or by the setting off of a 
portion of some one of the institutions already existing. 

Bills are herewith submitted, incorporating the above 
suggestions as to juvenile wards, and are presented in 
Appendix A. 



THE INSANE. 

According to the report of the State Board of Lunacy 
and Charity for the year 1895, there were on September 30 
of that year in the several State lunatic hospitals and insane 
asylums, at the State Farm and State Almshouse, the follow- 
ing number of insane persons, including 20 dipsomaniacs 
and 10 voluntary patients : — 



Worcester Lunatic Hospital, . 










961 


Taunton Lunatic Hospital, 










846 


Northampton Lunatic Hospital, 










546 


Worcester Insane Asylum, 










447 


Danvers Lunatic Hospital, 










948 


Westborough Insane Hospital, 










567 


State Farm, . . .' 










244 


State Almshouse, 










473 



5,032 

Of this number, 523 were private patients, the cost of 
whose support was paid for out of private funds, leaving 
4,509 patients the cost of whose support was borne by the 
cities and towns in which the insane persons had settle- 
ments, and by the Commonwealth when the insane persons 
had no settlements. 

Besides the above hospitals, there is the Massachusetts 
Hospital for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates, established by St. 
1889, c. 414, of which there were at the time named 129 in- 
mates ; the Medfield Insane Asylum, established by St. 1892, 
c. 425, for the chronic insane, to which the chronic insane in 
the hospitals above enumerated are being transferred as the 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 19 

buildings are ready for occupancy ; and the Massachusetts 
Hospital for Epileptics, established by St. 1895, c. 438. 

All of the above institutions are governed by boards of 
trustees, who appoint all subordinate officers. 

Moreover, besides the insane persons above enumerated in 
the State hospitals, asylums and institutions, there were at 
the time named 527 patients in the Boston Lunatic Hospital, 
204 in corporate or private asylums, 142 boarded in private 
families in charge of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, 
and approximately 863 in the care of the overseers of the 
poor of the several cities and towns of the Commonwealth, 
making a total of 5,905 insane persons under medical super- 
vision, and about 863 in charge of the overseers of the poor. 
All of the patients in the corporate or private asylums, 60 in 
municipal asylums and 17 of those boarded in families under 
State control were supported by private funds. 

Over all of these persons and of the institutions of which 
they are inmates the State Board of Lunacy and Charity has 
supervisory powers. 

The Board is required to report annually to the governor 
and council a properly classified and tabulated statement of 
the receipts and expenses for that year of each of the sev- 
eral State institutions under its charge, and a correspond- 
ing classified and tabulated statement of their estimates for 
the year ensuing ; and it is required to express its opinion as 
to the necessity or expediency of the appropriation in accord- 
ance with the estimates. It is also required to present such 
suggestions and recommendations as it may deem fit, relating 
to the work of the several institutions and to the general in- 
terests of insane persons throughout the State. It is also 
required to prepare, from the returns made by the overseers 
of the poor, tables of all the pauper insane supported by 
towns, and to print in its annual report the most important 
information thus obtained. It is authorized to transfer any 
insane pauper from the State lunatic hospitals to the insa*ne 
ward of the State Almshouse, and from one State lunatic 
hospital to another, and to transfer and commit inmates 
from the other State institutions to the State lunatic hospi- 
tals and asylums, and may under certain conditions transfer 
inmates of private asylums to other private asylums and to 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. . 

the State lunatic hospitals. It has also power to send insane 
paupers away to another State, or to the place where they 
belong. 

It is. moreover, obliged at least once in every year to 
visit all places where State paupers are supported, and to 
:tain, from actual examination and inquiry, whether the 
law- with respect to such paupers are properly observed. 
particularly in relation to such as are able to labor : and i- 
obliged also to give such directions as will insure cor- 
rectness in the returns required in relation to the paupers ; 
and it has. generally, the same powers relating to the State 
paupers who are inmates of the lunatic hospitals in the 
State, and their property, as are vested in towns and over- 
seers of the poor in reference to paupers supported or 
relieved by towns. It is authorized, when it has reason to 
believe that any insane person not curable is deprived of 
remedial treatment and is confined in an almshouse or 
other place, to make application for the commitment of 
such person to a State hospital. It shall by itself or its 
agent visit every asylum for the insane established by any 
city under St. 1884, c. 234, and it has the same power of re- 
moval and transfer of the inmates of these asylums which it 
has of those of other hospitals or asylums for the insane. 
It has the power to enforce the law regelating the districts 
from which insane persons can be committed to the State 
hospitals, and it has the care and custody of the insane who 
are boarded in families. It is also obliged, by itself or its 
agents, to visit and inspect ever}' private asylum, or recep- 
tacle for the insane, at least once in every six months. 

It has, moreover, power to act as Commissioners of 
Lunacy, with power to investigate the question of the in- 
sanity and condition of any person committed to any luna- 
tic hospital or asylum, public or private, or restrained of 
his liberty by reason of his alleged insanity, at any place in 
the Commonwealth : and has power to discharge an}' such 
person, if in its opinion such person is not insane, or 
be cared for. after such discharge, without danger to other- 
and with benefit to himself. 

These powers and duties, entrusted to the State Board 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 21 

of Lunacy and Charity, have been of gradual growth, 
beginning with the Board of Commissioners in Relation to 
Alien Passengers and State Paupers, established in 1851, 
and extending through all the period included between that 
year and the present time. It would be interesting, if we 
had the space and time, to trace this growth through the 
statutes ; but it is more to the point, for our present pur- 
pose, to draw attention to the accumulation of work in 
relation to the insane wards of the Commonwealth and to 
the subject of insanity generally, that now rests upon the 
Board and its duly appointed agents. 

Moreover, in this connection it should be noted that the 
State lunatic hospitals consisted for many years of only the 
Worcester, Taunton and Northampton hospitals. The Dan- 
vers Hospital and. the Worcester Insane Asylum were both 
established in 1877 ; the Westborough Insane Hospital in 
1884; the Medfield Asylum in 1892 ; and in 1895 the State 
Asylum for Insane Criminals at Bridgewater ; and latterly 
there has been created the Massachusetts Hospital for Epi- 
leptics and the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipsomaniacs 
and Inebriates, both of which institutions would seem to 
require somewhat the same sort of general supervision and 
care as the lunatic hospitals and asylums ; and the duties 
of the State Board, prescribed especially for lunatic hospi- 
tals and asylums, would seem equally applicable to them. 
The number of State lunatic hospitals and asylums, there- 
fore, properly so called, which have come under the super- 
vision of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, has since 
1877 more than doubled. The increased powers and duties 
of the Board in this and other regards and its added powers 
and duties as Commissioners of Lunacy, with all that may 
be involved in the examination of the sanity and condition 
of any person committed to any lunatic hospital or asylum, 
be it a public one or a private one, or of any person who 
is restrained of his liberty, on the ground of his alleged 
insanity, at any place within the Commonwealth, call for an 
amount of work to be performed by the Board which was 
hardly contemplated at the time that the supervision of the 
lunatic hospitals and of the insane poor was first given to it. 



22 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

The importance of the work which devolves upon the State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity, in this direction alone, can 
hardly be exaggerated, and the possibilities of the further 
development of the work, both in a scientific and a practical 
direction, are worthy of the most careful attention. That 
work we believe is sufficient in itself to authorize the crea- 
tion of an independent Board to carry it out effectively. 

The same Board, or department, should not be called 
upon to perform duties respectively so important in them- 
selves and so little related to each other as those regarding 
the insane wards of the Commonwealth and the general 
subject of insanity, and those relating to the charitable 
institutions and the charitable interests of the Common- 
wealth. TTe believe that the time has come to set apart 
duties which are sufficient in themselves to occupy a depart- 
ment created for their express fulfilment. 

State Board of Insanity. 

We therefore recommend that a State Board of Insanity 
be created, consisting of five persons, who shall each hold 
office for the term of five years. They shall be appointed 
by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council ; 
two of them shall be expert in insanity, and shall devote 
their whole time to the performance of their duties as mem- 
bers of the Board, and shall each receive a salary of $5,000 
a year and his actual expenses. The other members of the 
Board shall receive no salaries, but shall be paid only for 
their necessary expenses actually incurred in the perform- 
ance of their duties. The Board also shall have the power 
to appoint such agents and subordinate officers as it may 
deem requisite, and to fix their salaries, subject to the 
approval of the governor and council. 

TTe recommend that to this Board shall be transferred all 
the powers relating to the subject of insanity which are now 
exercised by the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, and 
that the Board shall exercise the same powers of supervision, 
transfer, and otherwise over the Massachusetts Hospital for 
Epileptics and the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipsomaniacs 
and Inebriates, which it will have in regard to hospitals 
and asylums for the insane, when the transfer which we 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 23 

recommend above shall have been made. The Massachu- 
setts School for the Feeble-Minded and the Hospital Cottages 
for Children, chiefly epileptic, would naturally also come 
under the supervision of this Board. It shall visit at least 
once in every year all places where insane poor are sup- 
ported, and ascertain from actual examination and inquiry 
whether the laws with respect to such insane poor are 
properly observed. 

The Board shall, moreover, in presenting its suggestions 
and recommendations relating to the several institutions 
under its supervision, and also as to the general interests 
of insane persons throughout the State, present information 
embodying the experience of institutions for the insane in 
this and other countries, regarding the best and most suc- 
cessful methods of caring for the insane ; and it shall also 
encourage scientific investigation in the matter and treat- 
ment of insanity by the medical staffs of the various institu- 
tions, and shall publish from time to time bulletins and 
reports of the scientific and clinical work done therein. 

The Board shall further inspect all plans for new build- 
ings, and for the extension, alteration or repair of existing 
buildings, to be used by the State as hospitals or asylums 
for the insane, and no such building or extension or addi- 
tion shall be hereafter constructed for that purpose unless 
the plan for its construction is first approved by the Board. 

The Board shall keep records of patients and attend to 
the enforcement of the laws in regard to commitments, and 
keep records of the same ; and all institutions under its 
inspection and supervision shall be obliged to furnish all the 
information required by the Board. 

State Care of the Insane. 
AVe recommend that all insane persons, acute and 
chronic, who are supported at public expense, be placed 
under the care, custody and control of the authorities of 
the Commonwealth, and that the expense of their support 
be borne entirely by the Commonwealth. This, we are 
aware, is a somewhat radical change from the existing 
system, but we believe that it is for the interest of the 
insane within the Commonwealth to have it carried out. 



24 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

The principal reasons which have led us to make this 
recommendation are : first, that the treatment of the insane 
would be uniform ; second, that such treatment would in all 
cases be under the direction of the best and most advanced 
expert knowledge attainable in the Commonwealth, and 
thus in some instances more humane ; third, that the appli- 
cation of the settlement laws to insane paupers would be 
seldom required ; and, fourth, that economical methods in the 
care of the insane would be eventually more easily attained. 

The tendency of the present time among the cities and 
towns of the Commonwealth is to remove the insane people 
who have a settlement within them from the care of the 
State authorities as soon as the acute stage of insanity has 
passed ; in other words, when the patient becomes chroni- 
cally insane and harmless, as they are in many instances, 
the city or town which has to pay for his or her support 
removes such patient from the State institution and places 
him or her in its almshouse, or in such institution as it may 
have provided for the care of the insane. The motive for 
this removal is that the city or town can ordinarily support 
a harmless chronic insane person for a less sum of money 
than it has to pay the State for his or her support. More- 
over,, it sometimes occurs that the cities and towns postpone 
sending their insane poor to the State institutions in the 
acute stages of the disease until the period in which the 
chances of cure are the most promising has passed. 

Eight of the cities of the Commonwealth have hospitals or 
other receptacles for the insane in connection with their 
almshouses where the chronic patients are cared for, and the 
fact that they are in a place set apart for the insane is 
evidence that they are separated from the sane poor. It 
is, however, different, and in some cases necessarily so, 
in many cities and towns of the Commonwealth, where the 
chronic insane are placed in the almshouses, often directly 
among the sane poor, without any attempt to keep the two 
classes separate. Such a mingling of sane and insane per- 
sons leads often to unfortunate results, and we know of no 
better method to avoid this difficulty than that which we 
recommend above. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 25 

This transfer of the care and support of the insane poor 
to the Commonwealth will necessitate the providing by the 
Commonwealth of accommodations for those insane persons 
who are now taken care of locally in the different cities and 
towns, and who number approximately thirteen hundred. 
This number, we understand, practically represents all the 
insane poor for whom accommodation will have to be 
found by the Commonwealth. "We would suggest that it 
might be found expedient for the Commonwealth to take pos- 
session of some of the buildings erected by the different 
cities for the care of their insane, as for instance, in the 
city of Boston. The exact method to be pursued, however, 
in the care of the insane poor, whom we now recommend be 
transferred to the care and support of the Commonwealth, 
can be safely left to the State Board of Insanity, if it be 
created as we recommend, inasmuch as the demands for the 
future accommodation and treatment of the insane will be 
more clearly seen by them than can be now anticipated by 
us. Some of the chronic insane can perhaps be cared for 
in the localities to which they belong. 

We are of course aware that the adoption of the above 
recommendation will involve the Commonwealth in some 
additional expenditure of money at the outset for the con- 
struction or the taking of the buildings necessary to accom- 
modate the increased number of insane, and also annually 
for their support. It is difficult to estimate the expense thus 
involved, but it will not be larger than the Commonwealth 
can properly assume, in order to carry out a reform which 
will be of incalculable benefit to a large class of its wards. 
Moreover, it is to be borne in mind that, although an ad- 
ditional burden would be thrown upon the Commonwealth, 
and through it upon the taxpayer, still, the cities and towns 
would be relieved of all obligation to support their insane 
poor, and would in this manner not only save the amounts 
which they expend in determining questions of settlement 
and in the care of those who are locally supported, but also 
the amounts which they have annually to pay the Com- 
monwealth for those who are supported by it. 



26 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



Commitments. 

The law of the Commonwealth provides that, except when 
otherwise specially provided, no person shall be committed 
to a lunatic hospital, asylum or other receptacle for the 
insane, public or private, without an order or certificate 
therefor, signed by a judge of the supreme judicial court or 
superior court in any county where he may be, or a judge 
of the probate court or of a police, district or municipal 
court within his county. The order or certificate shall 
state that the judge finds that the person committed is 
insane, and is a fit person for treatment in an insane 
asylum ; and that he either has a legal settlement in the 
State, or has been an inhabitant thereof for the six months 
immediately preceding such finding, or that arrangements 
satisfactory to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity have 
been made for his maintenance, or that, by reason of in- 
sanity, he would be dangerous if at large. The judge shall 
see and examine the person alleged to be insane, or state in 
his final order the reason why it was not deemed necessary 
or advisable to do so. The hearing, except when a jury is 
summoned, shall be at such place as the judge shall appoint. 
In all cases the judge shall certify in what place the lunatic 
resided at the time of his commitment ; or, if commitment 
is ordered by a court, the judge shall certify at what place 
the lunatic resided at the time of his arrest, in pursuance of 
which he was held to answer before such court. 

No person shall be committed unless, in addition to the 
oral testimony, there has been filed with the judge who 
hears the complaint or other proceeding for the commit- 
ment of the person alleged to be insane the certificate of 
two physicians, certifying to such person's insanity. The 
law further provides that no one shall be qualified as a 
physician to make to a judge the above certificate unless he 
shall make oath that he is a graduate of a legally chartered 
school or college, and that he has been in the actual practice 
of his profession in this Commonwealth as a physician for 
at least three years since graduation, and for the three years 
next preceding his making said oath ; nor unless he is duly 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 27 

registered, in compliance with the provisions of chapter 458 
of the Acts of the year 1894, and continues to be so regis- 
tered ; nor unless his standing, character and professional 
knowledge of insanity are satisfactory to the judge. A cer- 
tificate bearing date more than ten days prior to any com- 
mitment of any person alleged to be insane shall be null 
and void, and no certificate shall be valid or received in evi- 
dence if signed by any physician holding any office or ap- 
pointment in or connected with the hospital, asylum or other 
place for the insane to which the person in question may 
be committed by order of the judge. Every physician cer- 
tifying must himself have examined the person alleged to 
have been insane within five days of his signing the certifi- 
cate, and shall state in the certificate that in his opinion the 
person is insane, and a proper subject for treatment in an 
insane hospital or asylum, and shall certify the facts upon 
which his information is founded. A copy of the certificate, 
attested by the judge, shall be delivered by the officer or 
other person making the commitment to the superintendent 
of the hospital or other place to which the person shall be 
committed, and shall be filed and kept with the order of com- 
mitment. A copy of each physician's certificate of insanity 
shall be mailed to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity 
by the superintendent of each lunatic hospital and asylum 
within forty-eight hours after the commitment of each per- 
son adjudged to be insane. 

A person applying for the commitment or for the admis- 
sion of a patient to a State lunatic hospital, or to the Hospital 
for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates, shall first give notice in 
writing to the overseers of the poor in the place where the 
lunatic or dipsomaniac resides, except in Boston, where the 
notice shall be given to the Institutions Commissioner, of 
his intention to make such application ; and satisfactory ev- 
idence that such notice has been given shall be produced to 
the justice in the cases of commitment. 

Upon every application for the commitment or admission 
of an insane person to a hospital or asylum for the insane, 
there shall be filed with the application, or within ten days 
after the commitment or admission, a statement in respect to 



28 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

such person showing, as nearly as can be ascertained, his 
age, birthplace, civil condition and occupation, the supposed 
cause and the duration and character of his disease, etc. ; 
and this statement, or a copy thereof, shall be transmitted 
to the superintendent of the hospital or asylum, to be filed 
with the order of commitment or the application for admis- 
sion. The superintendent shall, within two days from the 
time of the admission or commitment of an insane person, 
send or cause to be sent notice of said commitment in 
writing by mail, postage prepaid, to each of the relatives 
of the insane person that are named in the statement, or to 
any other two persons whom the person committed shall 
designate. 

The law further provides that the judge may in his dis- 
cretion issue a warrant to the sheriff or his deputy, direct- 
ing him to summon a jury of six lawful men to hear and 
determine whether the alleged lunatic is insane. 

Each judge is required to keep a docket or record of the 
causes relating to lunatics coming before him, numbered or 
otherwise properly designated, and the disposition of them. 
He shall also receive and keep on file the original applica- 
tion, statement of applicant, and certificate of physicians and 
the copy of the order of commitment, attested by and regu- 
larly returned by the officer or other person serving the same. 

The superintendent or keeper of any lunatic hospital in 
this State, and of any city asylum for the care and treatment 
of the chronic insane, may receive into his custody and de- 
tain at such hospital or asylum, for any period not exceeding 
five days, without any order of a judge or justice, any person 
as insane whose case is duly certified to be one of violent 
and dangerous insanity and emergency, by two physicians 
qualified as provided by law. In addition to such certifi- 
cates, an application signed by one of the selectmen of the 
town, or by the mayor or one of the aldermen of the city, 
in which said insane person resides or is found, shall be left 
with the superintendent of the hospital or asylum in which 
the insane person is received; and such application shall 
contain the statement in respect to such insane person which 
is now required by law, and a further statement that the 
case is one of violent and dangerous insanity. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 29 

When a patient is received into any lunatic hospital or 
asylum upon his own application, or as an emergency patient, 
the superintendent shall give immediate notice of such recep- 
tion to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, stating all 
the particulars in the case, including the legal settlement of 
the person so received, if known; and said Board shall 
immediately cause such cases to be investigated, and a 
record to be made of all the facts pertaining thereto. 

Any physician who wilfully and intentionally conspires 
with any person, unlawfully or improperly to commit to 
any lunatic hospital or asylum in this State any person w^ho 
is not insane, shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, 
at the discretion of the court. 

Provision is also made for the reception by lunatic hos- 
pitals or asylums for the insane, as a boarder or patient, of 
any person who desires to submit himself to treatment, but 
whose mental condition is not such as to render it legal to 
grant a certificate of insanity. 

Several changes and additions have been suggested to us 
in the course of our investigation into the law of com- 
mitments ; but, in view of the facts that the laws regulating 
this subject have been amended within the last few years, 
and that they appear to be working well, we are not pre- 
pared to recommend any additional changes. We would, 
however, suggest that the simplification of the form of cer- 
tificates now required might be obtained by providing that 
the Board of Insanity, if created, should prescribe a form 
which should be universally adopted. 

BOARDED-OUT INSANE. 

The State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity was au- 
thorized in 1885 (St. 1885, c. 385) " to place at board, 
where they may deem it expedient, and in suitable fami- 
lies throughout the Commonwealth, insane persons of the 
chronic and quiet class, and the cost of boarding such in- 
sane persons having no settlement in this Commonwealth 
shall be paid from the appropriation for the support of 
State paupers in lunatic hospitals." Bills for the support 
of insane persons so boarded in families at the expense of 
the State were audited by the Board, and it was made the 



30 CHAKITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

duty of the Board to cause all insane persons who were so 
boarded in families to be visited at least once in three 
months ; and all insane persons who were boarded in 
families at the expense of towns and cities and whose resi- 
dence was made known to the Board, to be visited at least 
once in six months by some agent of the Board. The 
Board was also required to remove to a lunatic hospital or 
to some better boarding-place all State paupers who upon 
visitation were found to be abused, neglected or improperly 
cared for, when boarded out, and might also remove to a 
lunatic hospital any insane person boarded at the expense 
of a city or town who should be found unsuitably provided 
with a boarding-place. In 1886 (St. 1886, c. 101, § 4) 
the above authority was vested in the State Board of Lunacy 
and Charity. 

As previously stated, the number of boarded-out insane 
under the above provision of the statutes, on Sept. 30, 1895, 
according to the .report of the State Board of Lunacy and 
Charity for the year 1895, was 142. Although we believe 
that this authority can remain with the State Board of 
Insanity, if created according to our recommendations, 
until the number of insane persons boarded out reaches 
such proportions that a separate department should be cre- 
ated to take charge of the work, we see no reason why 
the boards of trustees of the several hospitals and asylums 
for the insane should not also have the power to board out 
insane persons of the character described who are in the in- 
stitutions under their control, as well as the State Board 
of Insanity. The work of the boards of trustees in this re- 
gard should be of course subject to the supervision of the State 
Board of Insanity. We therefore recommend that the law 
be changed so as to carry out the above recommendation. 

Genekal Suggestions. 

Great weight should be attached to the thorough inspec- 
tion of all the hospitals and asylums for the insane brought 
under the supervision of the State Board of Insanity, and in 
order to insure such inspection we would suggest that the 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 31 

following provisions be incorporated in the law and made 
mandatory : — 

First. — That the Board or any two members of it should 
visit every hospital and asylum under its supervision at 
least twice a year. 

Second. — That every part of the institution visited should 
be carefully inspected. 

Third. — That every patient should be interviewed, or an 
opportunity ottered to each one to hold an interview. 

Fourth. — That every certificate of commitment entered 
or riled since the last visitation should be inspected. 

Fifth . — That entries should be made by the visiting 
Board or the visiting members in a visitors' book of 
minutes of the condition of the institution at that time, of 
the patients therein, of the patients under restraint and their 
number, and any criticisms or observations that the Board 
or visiting members may have to make, — for instance, as to 
the occupation, amusement or classification of the patients, 
as to the cleanliness and sanitary condition of the institu- 
tion, as to the diet of the patients, and any other matters 
that they may deem worthy of observation or criticism. 

We further recommend : — 

That all patients in any hospital, asylum or receptacle for 
the insane shall be allowed, subject to the regulations of the 
Board, to write freely to the State Board of Insanity, if 
created, and that the letters so w T ritten shall be forwarded 
unopened by the superintendent or person in charge to the 
said Board, for such disposition as it shall deem right ; and 
that the said Board shall have the right to send any letters, 
or other communications that it may deem proper, to such 
patients. 

That whenever any person is received by the superintend- 
ent or physician in charge of any insane hospital or asylum, 
and there is a question as to the propriety of his or her 
commitment, the said superintendent or physician shall im- 
mediately notify the State Board of Insanity, who shall in- 
quire into the insanity of such patient and into the question 
of the propriety of the commitment. 

That, in taking and transferring patients to and from the 



32 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

institutions for the insane, the nurses of the hospitals and 
asylums should be employed, as far as practicable, instead of 
officers of the law. 

That a uniform system of keeping accounts in the several 
State hospitals and asylums be prescribed by the State 
Board of Insanity, and that the same be universally adopted 
by those institutions. 

That the State Board of Insanity and the boards of trus- 
tees of the several hospitals and asylums for the insane, 
whose responsibilities should not be lessened, meet quar- 
terly for purposes of consultation and harmonious action. 
Some of the topics to be considered at such meetings might 
be the apportionment of patients to the several hospitals 
and asylums, the examination by experts of questions of 
diet, ventilation, drainage, new construction, improved 
facilities for treating acute curable cases, occupation for 
the patients and gymnastics as a means of physical and 
mental training. 

That there be referred to the Board or its officers ques- 
tions of the sanity of inmates of the penal, reformatory and 
other institutions who present indications qf insanity. 

That the use of the word * ' lunatic " be abandoned, and 
that the term * * insane " or * ' insane person " be substituted 
for it wherever it occurs in the names of the several hos- 
pitals and in the laws relating to the insane. 

We submit a bill, incorporating the above recommenda- 
tions, in Appendix B. 



LAWS OF SETTLEMENT. 

Every pauper within the confines of the State of Massa- 
chusetts is supported in one of two ways, either by the 
city or town in which he has a settlement, or by the Com- 
monwealth if he has no settlement. If he has no settlement, 
the question of his support is a simple one. If, however, 
he has a settlement, the further question arises, in what city 
or town he has that settlement. The determination of the 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 33 

questions whether a pauper has or has not a settlement, and 
where his settlement is if he has one, calls for the applica- 
tion of the settlement laws of the Commonwealth. Through 
the application of these laws is determined the proportion 
of the expenditure for the support of the paupers found 
within the State that the Commonwealth and the cities and 
towns shall severally bear. 

In another part of this report we have recommended that 
all insane paupers be supported by the Commonwealth. 
The result of this recommendation, if adopted, will be to 
relieve the cities and towns from any obligation to support 
insane paupers having settlements therein, and to this ex- 
tent questions arising under the settlement laws will be 
diminished in number. Thereafter they will arise mainly 
in regard to the support of sane paupers. 

Various suggestions have been presented to us, looking 
to a change in the settlement laws as they at present exist. 
These suggestions were presented by persons who have had 
the largest experience in the administration of these laws 
within the Commonwealth. All the changes which we rec- 
ommend, with some slight exceptions, are changes which 
have been approved by the Massachusetts Association of 
Relief Officers, which is an association composed of many 
of the overseers of the poor of different cities and towns of 
the Commonwealth and their executive officers ; and most 
of them are approved by the agent of the present Board of 
Lunacy and Charity, who has special charge of the admin- 
istration of the settlement laws on the part of the Common- 
wealth. 

In concluding to recommend the changes which we present 
below, we have had constantly in mind a consideration 
which we believe to be most important for the welfare of 
the poor who are dependent upon public charity in the 
Commonwealth ; namely, that they should be kept, as far 
as possible, out of institutions, and should be supported in 
the different localities to which they belong. The reasons 
which have brought us to recommend that the insane poor 
should be supported and cared for by the Commonwealth 
might, in some of their aspects, also lead us to recommend 



34 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

consistently that the Commonwealth take charge of all the 
poor dependent upon public charity, sane as well as insane, 
and pay for their maintenance and support. We are not, 
however, prepared to approve so radical a change as this 
in the existing system of support of the dependent poor 
within the Commonwealth. The demand, moreover, for 
uniform and expert treatment which forms so large a con- 
sideration in dealing with the insane poor, does not apply 
with equal force to the care and support of the sane. If, 
however, at any time hereafter, it should be deemed proper 
to make this change, we have no doubt that the advisability 
of the Commonwealth supporting the poor dependent upon 
public charity in the different cities and towns where they 
belong will be recognized, and that the placing of the poor, 
of which it has the care and support, in institutions will be 
carefully limited. However this may be, we believe, at 
the present time, that it is better that the existing system 
of local support should continue, so far as the sane poor 
are concerned ; and, while this is so, we believe that the 
prerequisites to obtaining a settlement should be made 
lighter than they are at present, and that in some other 
respects the laws of settlement should be simplified and 
made clearer. We therefore recommend : — 

First. — That all settlements acquired by virtue of any 
provision of law in force prior to the passage of the act 
approved May 13, 1865, entitled "An act relating to the 
settlement and relief of persons who have served in the 
army and navy of the United States," should be defeated 
and lost, except where the existence of such settlement 
prevented a subsequent acquisition of settlement in the 
same place ; provided, that whenever a settlement acquired 
by marriage has been thus defeated, the former settlement 
of the wife, if not defeated by the same provision, shall be 
thereby revived. 

Xo settlements have been lost in Massachusetts since 
1794, (see St. 1870, chap. 392, § 2 ; St. 1878, chap. 190, 
§ 4) and it seems proper to fix a later period within which 
they shall be lost. The year 1865 has been fixed upon, 
because at that time there was much legislation in favor of 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 35 

the soldier and the sailor, and it is deemed inadvisable to 
affect in any way whatever rights they may have obtained 
under that Legislation. 

Second. — That legitimate children, until they gain a set- 
tlement of their own, shall follow and have the settlement of 
their parents or surviving parent, or of the parent to whom 
the children are awarded in case of divorce, if the parents or 
parent have any within the State. 

The law at present provides that legitimate children shall 
follow and have the settlement of the father if he has any 
within the State, until they gain a settlement of their own ; 
but if he has none, they shall in like manner follow and 
have the settlement of the mother if she has any. The rea- 
son for this suggested change is, that under the present law 
the surviving parent and the children are sometimes separated 
in their support. For instance, a man and a woman marry ; 
they have a child ; the husband who has a settlement dies ; 
the wife marries a second husband, w T ho has a settlement 
in some other part of the State, and she of course takes 
the settlement. If they fall into distress, the mother and 
child are separated ; the child's settlement may be in one 
place, and the mother's in another. The result of the 
change suggested would be, that children would follow 
the settlement of the surviving parent, so that, if the 
surviving parent becomes dependent upon public charity, 
such parent and the children will be helped by the same 
community and in the same way. The suggestion as to 
the disposition of children in case of divorce is made for 
the same reason. 

Third. — That any person of the age of twenty-one years 
who resides in any place within this State for three years 
together shall thereby gain a settlement in such place. 

The law at present provides that any person of the age of 
twenty-one years who resides in any place within the State 
for five years together, and pays all State, county, city or 
town taxes duly assessed on his poll or estate for any three 
years within that time, shall thereby gain a settlement in 
Buch place ; and that any woman of the age of twenty-one 
years who resides in any place within the State for five 



36 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

years together shall thereby gain a settlement in such place. 
Before 1874 the law required a residence of ten years and 
the payment of taxes for five years. Following the policy 
of the legislature in 1874, we believe that the number of 
years residence should be reduced to three and that the pay- 
ment of taxes as a prerequisite to obtaining a settlement be 
done away with. The poll tax as a prerequisite for voting 
has been abolished, and the class of people who are likely 
to fall into distress will not probably pay any more poll 
taxes ; so it seems that the result of retaining the provision 
requiring payment of a tax as a prerequisite to acquiring a 
settlement would be that people of the class that are likely 
to be most in need of assistance will never become settled. 
Men and women, moreover, if the above changes are 
adopted, will be placed on exactly the same footing, so 
far as the acquisition of a settlement is concerned. 

Fourth. — No person shall be in process of acquiring a 
settlement while receiving relief as a pauper, unless within 
three years from the time of receiving such relief the city or 
town is reimbursed the cost thereof. 

The object of this provision is, of course, apparent ; and 
the provision itself corresponds exactly with the present 
law, excepting as to the number of years within which the 
city or town furnishing' the relief must be reimbursed the 
cost thereof. The present law fixes that number at five 
years. The recommendation above changes the time from 
five years to three, so that this provision of law will be in 
accordance with the time of residence recommended above 
as a prerequisite for the acquisition of a settlement. 

Fifth. — That all persons absent from the Common- 
wealth for ten years in succession shall lose their settle- 
ments. 

This would be a new provision of law in this Common- 
wealth. In the State of Maine settlements are lost by living 
five consecutive years beyond the limits of the State, and in 
New Hampshire all settlements acquired before 1880 are 
defeated. We believe that a person who lives out of the 
State for ten years continuously should not be allowed, when 
in need of public aid, to return to this State and claim a 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 37 

settlement in a city or town in which he had not resided for 
so many years. 

Sixth, — That no person who has begun to acquire a set- 
tlement by the laws in force at or before the time the above 
changes are made shall be prevented or delayed by these 
provisions, but shall acquire a settlement in the same time 
and in the same manner as if the former laws had continued 
in force. 

We recommend that the above changes should not take 
effect until January 1, 1898, in order to give the cities and 
towns of the Commonwealth an opportunity to adapt them- 
selves to the new law. 

We submit a bill incorporating the above recommenda- 
tions in Appendix C. 



HOSPITAL FOR DIPSOMANIACS AND 
INEBRIATES. 

The statute of 1885, chapter 329, was the first attempt in 
the legislation of this Commonwealth to provide for the 
treatment of dipsomania or habitual drunkenness as a 
disease. That act authorized the committal of a person 
subject to dipsomania or habitual drunkenness, whether in 
public or in private, to one of the State Lunatic Hospitals, 
when such a person was not of bad repute or of bad charac- 
ter, apart from his habits of inebriety. It was found from 
experience that the commitment of such persons to State 
lunatic hospitals was subject to difficulties, and in 1889 
there was passed an act to establish the Massachusetts Hos- 
pital for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates (St. 1889, chapter 
414). The hospital authorized by the above legislation 
was opened in 1893, and has been in existence, therefore, a 
little over three years. 

We understand that the objects of the creation of this 
hospital were to treat inebriety or drunkenness in a scien- 
tific manner as a disease, to enable persons supposed to be 
suffering from this disease to be committed to the hospital 
without the stigma attaching to them consequent upon a 



38 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

committal to a penal or reformatory institution, and to 
relieve the insane hospitals. 

The fact must be recognized that in establishing this in- 
stitution the Commonwealth undertook a novel experiment, 
the value of which cannot be determined immediately. The 
statistics showing the results of the work of the hospital 
looking towards the permanent improvement of the persons 
committed thereto are naturally meagre, and it would be 
premature to judge of the future by the results of the work 
of the institution at the present time. 

There has been recently a reorganization of the Board of 
Trustees, and although, so far as information can be ob- 
tained, the full purpose for which the hospital was created 
has not yet been attained, still, we feel that the experiment 
of the maintenance of such an institution has hardly as 
yet received a fair test. If the experiment be worth under- 
taking at all, it seems that the Commonwealth should deal 
generously with the institution. 

In order to better effect the original objects of the hospi- 
tal, and to render the experiment more satisfactory, we 
recommend the following changes in the legislation which 
already governs the institution : — 

First. — That the Board of Trustees of the hospital shall 
have authority at any time, when a patient has been long 
enough in the hospital to enable it to form an opinion 
as to whether or not the treatment will benefit him, to 
finally discharge such patient. 

Second. — That the State Board of Insanity shall have the 
same powers in regard to this institution that it will have 
in regard to insane hospitals, if the transfer of authority 
recommended to be made in this report is perfected. These 
will include the power to discharge patients from the 
hospital and to transfer the inmates of the hospital to other 
State institutions and the inmates of the other State insti- 
tutions to the hospital. 

Third. — That the State Board of Insanity shall prescribe 
the forms for commitment to the hospital, and that forms so 
prescribed shall be universally used in the commitment of 
patients. 



RKPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 39 

Fourth. — That a system be devised by the State Board 
oi Insanity by which the Board of Trustees of the hospital 
shall be informed more specifically of the history of the 
patient at the time of commitment, and by which, if possi- 
ble, an investigation of the record of the patient should 
be made by a probation officer with the view of inform- 
ing the judge prior to his taking action upon the question 
of commitment. 

TTe submit a bill incorporating the above recommenda- 
tions in Appendix D. 



STATE BOARD OF CHARITY. 

If the recommendations that we have suggested above for 
the creation of a State Board of Insanity and a Department 
for Children be adopted, we recommend that a State Board 
of Charity be created, to which shall be given all the powers 
and duties which would have remained to the present State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity, if continued, after withdrawing 
from that Board the powers and duties given respectively 
to the State Board of Insanity and to the Department for 
Children. 

TTe recommend that this Board be composed of seven 
members, who shall each, hold office for seven years. They 
shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the consent 
and advice of the council, and one of them shall be desig- 
nated by the governor as secretary of the Board, and shall 
receive a salary of $3,500 and his actual expenses. The 
other members of the Board shall receive no compensation 
except their expenses actually incurred in the performance 
of their duties. 

The Board shall have power to appoint such agents and 
other subordinate officers as may be necessary, and to fix 
their compensation, subject to the approval of the Governor 
and Council. 

By the transfer of the powers above referred to, there 
would descend to the State Board of Charity from the 



40 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

present State Board of Lunacy and Charity, the general 
supervision of the sane paupers at the State Almshouse and 
State Farm, the Lyman School for Boys and the Industrial 
School for Girls ; and it would be required to visit, by its 
agents, those institutions at least as often as once in each 
month. We recommend, however, in another part of this 
report, that the State Farm be eventually used solely for 
prisoners sentenced by the courts, and that when this 
arrangement is perfected it be placed under the supervision 
of the Commissioners of Prisons. 

The Board would be required to present a review of 
the work of the several institutions under its supervision 
for the preceding year, with such suggestions relating to 
them and to the general charitable interests of the State as 
may be deemed expedient. It would be required to report 
annually a properly classified and tabulated statement of the 
receipts and expenses of all institutions under its supervi- 
sion ; a corresponding classified and tabulated statement of 
its estimates for the year ensuing, and as to the necessity 
or expediency of appropriations in accordance with the 
estimates . 

It would prescribe the forms for the statistical returns 
required by law to be made by the superintendents of the 
State institutions, and by the mayors of cities or the over- 
seers of the poor of towns. It would prepare, from returns 
made by the overseers of the poor, the tables of sane 
paupers supported by towns. 

It would be obliged to visit, at least once in every year, 
all places where State sane paupers are supported, and as- 
certain from actual examination and inquiry whether the 
laws in regard to such paupers are properly observed, par- 
ticularly in relation to those who are able to labor, and to 
give such directions as will insure correctness in the returns 
required in relation to paupers. It would have the same 
powers relating to State sane paupers who are inmates of the 
State Almshouse and to their property as are vested in 
towns and overseers of the poor in reference to paupers 
supported or relieved by towns. 

It would administer the laws relating to cases of persons, 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 41 

liable to be maintained by the Common wealth, who are in- 
fected with diseases dangerous to the public health or whose 
health would be endangered by removal to the State Alms- 
house. 

It would administer the laws relating to cases of poor 
and indigent persons where the wife has a legal settlement 
and the husband is a State pauper, and the laws relating 
to cases of temporary aid to poor persons having no lawful 
settlement within the Commonwealth. 

It would have the power to transfer sane pauper inmates 
from one State institution to another, or to send such 
paupers to any State or place where they belong. Upon 
an application of the trustees of the Lyman and Industrial 
Schools, it could transfer inmates of the schools to the State 
Farm or return them to the schools ; and it could, in certain 
cases, transfer inmates of the State Almshouse to the State 
Farm. 

It would have the determination of questions relating to 
the settlement or non-settlement of State sane paupers 
coming under the control of the State institutions under 
its supervision, the general administration of the laws of 
settlement relating to the support of State sane paupers by 
cities and towns, and the prosecution of cases of bastardy 
of non-settled persons. 

We recommend, in addition to the powers and duties above 
outlined, and which, as we have said, would descend to the 
State Board of Charity, if created, from the present State 
Board of Lunacy and Charity : 

That the State Board of Charity should have charge of 
the interests of the Commonwealth upon the subject of char- 
ity generally, and should investigate the causes of pauper- 
ism and existing and proposed methods and practices in the 
administration of relief of the poor. 

That the Board should publish from time to time informa- 
tion on the work of public and private charitable agencies 
in other States and countries, so far as the same may be 
deemed applicable to the needs of this Commonwealth ; that 
it should publish, periodically or otherwise, bulletins to be 



42 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

distributed to public officials and to other persons, and should 
establish a bureau of information for persons engaged or 
interested in public or private charities. 

That the Board should have the general supervision of the 
Department for Children, if created, the county and munic- 
ipal reformatories and homes for children, city and town 
almshouses, tramp houses and receptacles for tramps or 
vagrants. 

That all plans or estimates for new sites and new build- 
ings, for the extension, alteration or repair of existing 
buildings, for the arrangement of grounds or systems of 
sewerage, or for heating with reference to buildings which 
are, or will be when completed, subject to the visitation of 
the Board, should, before adoption, be submitted to the 
Board for its advice and suggestion. 

That the Board should promote measures designed to 
secure a uniform policy in the treatment of tramps and 
vagrants throughout the Commonwealth. 

Questions will arise as to the settlement of the insane 
poor and of certain other persons to the extent of determin- 
ing whether or not they should be supported by the Com- 
monwealth or removed to the State in which they have a 
settlement. We, therefore, recommend, in order to avoid 
the establishment by the State Board of Insanity of a 
separate department for the determination of such matters, 
that questions of the nature above described be referred 
to the State Board of Charity, to be determined by such 
department as the latter Board may establish to pass 
upon the settlement cases arising in regard to the sane 
poor. 

The powers and duties above described are sufficient to 
occupy the entire attention of a Board such as we suggest 
to be created 

In connection w T ith the general subject of the supervision 
of public charitable institutions, the value of voluntary 
local visitation should be recognized. Our attention has 
been directed to the work of the State Charities Aid Asso- 
ciation in New York. Good can doubtless be accomplished 
in this Commonwealth by the development of work of this 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 43 

nature in the visitation of almshouses and municipal homes 
for children. 

The most satisfactory results in dealing with the poor, 
both adult and children, can be reached by enlisting the 
intelligence and activity of a number of persons of varied 
and broad experience in dealing with problems of charity 
and education. We call attention with approval to the 
practice in a few cities and towns of the Commonwealth of 
electing women to the boards of overseers of the poor ; and 
in general we recommend that charitable institutions be 
governed by boards rather than by individuals. 

TTe submit a bill incorporating the above recommenda- 
tions in Appendix E. 

REFORMATORY AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS. 

The reformatory and penal institutions of the Common- 
wealth consist of the State Prison, the Massachusetts 
Reformatory at Concord and the Reformatory Prison for 
TTonien at Sherborn. These three institutions are under 
the control of and are maintained and supported entirely 
by the Commonwealth. They are subject to the supervision 
of the Commissioners of Prisons. In addition there is the 
State Farm at Bridgewater, subject to the supervision of the 
State Board of Lunacy and Charity. 

According to the report of the warden of the State 
Prison, submitted to the Legislature in January, 1896, in 
the report of the Commissioners of Prisons, there were 700 
convicts in the State Prison on September 30, 1895. Ac- 
cording to the report of the superintendent of the Reform- 
atory Prison for Women, submitted at the same time, there 
were, on the latter date, 336 in the custody of that reform- 
atory. By the report of the superintendent of the Massa- 
chusetts Reformatory, there were on the same date 1,011 
inmates of that reformatory, making in all 2,047 in the 
custody of the above-named institutions at the time named. 

There were during the year ending September 30, 1895, 
172 commitments to the State Prison, 334 to the Reforma- 
tory Prison for AVomen and 774 to the Massachusetts Re- 



U CHAKITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

formatory, making in all 1,280 persons committed by the 
courts during the year to the above institutions. 

Besides the institutions above named, there are twenty- 
two county jails and county houses of correction, includ- 
ing those in the city of Boston. Five of the above are 
jails, which are used mainly for the detention of persons 
awaiting trial; three are houses of correction used exclu- 
sively for sentenced prisoners, and fourteen of them consist 
of a jail and house of correction under the same roof and 
management. These jails and houses of correction are sub- 
ject to the supervision of the Commissioners of Prisons, 
but they are supported and maintained by the several 
counties, the officer in charge of the jails in every case 
being the sheriff of the county, and the officer in charge of 
the houses of correction, excepting in the city of Boston, 
being also the sheriff or a superintendent or master ap- 
pointed by him. In the city of Boston, the House of Indus- 
try, now called the House of Correction at Deer Island (St. 
1896, c. 536), and the House of Correction at South Boston 
are each in the charge of a master appointed by the Insti- 
tutions Commissioner. The control of all the supplies for 
these county institutions, except in the county of Suffolk, is 
in the hands of the county commissioners of the several 
counties. The county commissioners have, moreover, a 
general oversight of the administration of the institutions. 
In the county of Suffolk the Institutions Commissioner 
performs in this regard the functions of county commis- 
sioners in other counties. 

The Commissioners of Prisons, moreover, have the 
power to make rules for the government of these institu- 
tions, and those rules take precedence of all others. 

On September 30, 1895, there were 2,240 prisoners in 
the House of Industry in the city of Boston, now called 
the House of Correction at Deer Island, and in the House of 
Correction at South Boston, and 2,767 in the other county 
prisons, making a total of 5,007 inmates of the county jails 
and houses of correction at the time named, and making a 
total, including those in the custody of the State institutions 
and the State Farm, of 7,628 prisoners. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 45 

There were during the year ending September 30, 1895, 
8,458 commitments to the House of Industry and 16,665 
commitments to the other county jails and houses of cor- 
rection, making a total of 25,123 commitments to the House 
of Industry and to the other county jails and houses of 
correction during the time named, to which if we add the 
commitments made during the year to the State Prison, the 
Reformatory Prison for Women and the Massachusetts 
Reformatory, we have a total of 26,403 prisoners, who 
have during the year been committed to all the prisons 
above named. To these should be added 1,063 prisoners 
who were committed during the year to the State Farm. 

The County Jails and Houses of Correction. 

The statute of 1870, c. 370, entitled " An Act for the ap- 
pointment of Commissioners of Prisons, and for the classifi- 
cation and better discipline of prisoners," provided in section 
2 that the commissioners should < ' as far as practicable 
classify all prisoners held under sentence in all jails and 
houses of correction in the State, or that may be committed 
thereto at any time hereafter, having reference to sex, age, 
character, condition and offences, and in such manner as to 
promote the reformation, safe custody and economy of sup- 
port of the prisoners, and of the separation of male and 
female prisoners ; and for this purpose they may remove 
prisoners from one jail to another jail in the same or in any 
other county, and from one house of correction to another 
in the same or in any other county, and the said prisoners 
shall serve the remainder of their terms of sentence in the 
prisons to which they shall be so removed from time to 
time." 

It further provided, in section 4, that the courts "may 
sentence any person convicted before such court of an 
offence punishable by imprisonment in the jail or house of 
correction to any jail or house of correction of any county in 
the Commonwealth. And the jailer, or master, or keeper 
of the house of correction or jail to which such person shall 
be sentenced, or to which any person may be removed under 
this act, shall receive and detain such person or prisoner in 



46 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

the same manner as if committed by any court sitting in the 
county where said jail or house of correction is situated." 

These provisions of law have remained unchanged up to 
the present time. The classification above described has 
been found to be impracticable for several reasons. The 
county in which a prisoner was sentenced objected to paying 
for his support and maintenance in another county, feeling 
that it could support its prisoners within its own limits 
cheaper than they could be supported outside. The opinion 
also prevails among the county authorities that persons con- 
victed of offences within the county are in many instances 
best dealt with locally. The fact, moreover, that the Com- 
monwealth has not the entire control of the prisons in ques- 
tion renders it impossible to set apart particular prisons for 
specific uses. For these reasons among others, the attempt 
to bring about a classification such as that contemplated by 
the above statute has been abandoned, so that now there is 
no progressive classification in the county prisons. 

The policy which led the Legislature of the Common- 
wealth to enact the above provisions of law, and which led 
the Legislature more recently to create, in 1874, the 
Reformatory Prison for Women, and, in 1884, the Massa- 
chusetts Reformatory for the younger male prisoners, will, 
if pursued, undoubtedly in time lead to the placing of all 
the prisoners who are now sent to the county jails and 
houses of correction under the direct care and control of the 
authorities of the Commonwealth. The two institutions 
above named were established because it was felt at the time 
of their creation that some further effort should be made to 
classify the different criminals within the Commonwealth, 
and to give those who were young in years an opportunity 
at least to reform, if they were capable of reformation. 
There was a strong realization at that time and earlier that 
the massing of the young and old criminals, the compara- 
tively innocent with the most depraved, resulted in an in- 
crease of crime. The women who were susceptible of 
reform were, therefore, sent to Sherborn, and the younger 
men, between fifteen and thirty-five years of age, who were 
deemed susceptible of reformatory treatment, were taken to 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 47 

Concord. The want of classification and of opportunities 
for reformation so strongly felt twenty-live years ago is 
even more fully apparent at the present time. 

The number of commitments to the county jails and 
houses of correction, according to the report of the Com- 
missioners of Prisons above referred to, goes on increasing 
from year to year, and to meet this increase there is no cor- 
responding development of reformatory measures. 

It is important in this connection to note that according 
to the figures for the year ending September 30, 1895, there 
were nearly 1,300 commitments to county prisons, including 
the Boston House of Industry, of persons who were under 
twenty-one years of age, including 280 under eighteen, and 
9,163 others were of persons between twenty-one and thirty 
years of age. In other words, there were more than 10,000 
commitments of persons not above thirty years of age. 

If we examine into the class of offences for which prisoners 
were committed to these institutions, we find that 961 of 
the 4,558 in the county prisons on the 30th of September, 
1895, were held because of failure to pay fines and costs 
imposed for petty offences, 2,714 others were serving sen- 
tences not exceeding one year for small misdemeanors, and 
together with these, in close relationship with them, were 
883 prisoners who had sentences from one year to five years 
for grave crimes against person and property. These in- 
stances are cited to show a condition of things from which 
evil consequences must naturally be expected to follow. It 
is impossible that a' person who is guilty of some misde- 
meanor, to which he was impelled perhaps more by folly 
than by viciousness, should be associated for any length of 
time with hardened criminals and be affected in any way but 
for the worse. It needs no argument to show that such asso- 
ciation must have the most disastrous effect upon a person 
who, if differently placed, might naturally be susceptible to 
reformatory treatment. There can be no doubt, also, that 
many men, even if not educated in a school of crime, by 
living lives of enforced idleness in our county prisons go 
out less capable of self-respect and self-support than when 
they were committed. 



48 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

It is difficult to say, moreover, why in the nature of 
things there should be two classes of prisons, one sup- 
ported by the Commonwealth and the other by the counties. 
The offences which are punished by imprisonment are all 
offences against the laws of the Commonwealth, and there 
is no reason why, of two men who are guilty of the same 
offence, one should be sent to a State institution and another 
to an institution supported by the county. There might 
have been some reason for the existence of County prisons 
in accordance with the customs of the times when the law 
provided that a man guilty of an offence should be sen- 
tenced to the prison of the county in which he had com- 
mitted the crime, but that provision of law which had existed 
for many years was abrogated in 1870. (St. 1870, c. 370, 
sec. 4.) 

State Control of Prisons. 
We recommend that the distinction between county 
prisons and prisons under the control of the State be done 
away with, and that all of the prisons within the Common- 
wealth be placed under the sole control of and be maintained 
by the Commonwealth. By such change the following re- 
sults may be attained : — 

1. The abolition of unclassified prisons. 

2. The initiation and development of reformatory meas- 
ures for a larger number of prisoners who are susceptible 
to reform. 

3. Uniformity in the management of the prisons and the 
prisoners. 

4. Uniformity in the terms of sentences and in the grant- 
ing of permits to be at liberty. 

5. The better regulation of labor in the prisons. 

6. The more complete separation of the sexes. 

7. The abandonment of prisons now quite unfit for their 
purpose, as, for instance, the House of Correction at South 
Boston, and wiser provisions for relieving our overcrowded 
prisons. 

8. The more intelligent study and treatment of the 
problem of drunkenness. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 49 

We recommend that a superintendent for each of the 
prisons which may be provided by the Commonwealth for 
the prisoners who are now sentenced to the county prisons 
be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and 
consent of the council, upon the nomination of the Com- 
missioners of Prisons, if organized as recommended below; 
that each superintendent shall have the power to appoint all 
his subordinate officers and to fix their compensation, subject 
to the approval of the Commissioners of Prisons, and that 
such subordinate officers shall in each case hold their offices 
during the pleasure of the superintendent and the Commis- 
sioners. 

That each such superintendent shall have the custody and 
control of all the prisoners committed to the prison under 
his charge, and shall have the management and direction of 
the prison under the rules and regulations of the same. He 
shall purchase all the supplies necessary for the prison, and 
shall receive and pay out all the money paid from the 
treasury of the Commonwealth for the support thereof, and 
shall have the custody and control of the buildings and the 
property of the Commonwealth connected therewith. 

That the Commissioners of Prisons shall have the general 
supervision of each of said prisons, and shall make all 
necessary rules and regulations for the government and 
direction of the officers, for the discharge of their duties, for 
the discipline of prisoners and for the custody and preserva- 
tion of the property of the prisons, and that they shall in 
other respects have and exercise the same powers over such 
prisons as they now or hereafter shall exercise over the 
other prisons belonging to the Commonwealth. 

That there shall be a chaplain and a physician for each of 
the said prisons, each of whom shall be appointed by the 
Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the coun- 
cil, upon the nomination of the Commissioners of Prisons. 

That the jails in the several counties be used for the de- 
tention of persons awaiting trial and witnesses, and that 
they, so far as is practicable, remain under the immediate 
control of the sheriffs of the several counties as they are at 
present. 



50 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

That a certain number of sentenced prisoners may be 
committed to jails, with the approval of the Commissioners 
of Prisons. 

We further recommend that the Commissioners of Prisons 
should be given all the powers and duties now exercised by 
and incumbent upon the county commissioners of the several 
counties relating to the release of prisoners on permits to 
be at liberty and otherwise. The bestowal of these powers 
and the throwing of the burden of these duties upon the 
Commissioners of Prisons will increase to a large extent the 
powers and duties already exercised by them. It would be 
too much to expect that an unpaid board of commissioners, 
such as the Commissioners of Prisons are at present, should 
be obliged to perform these laborious and important func- 
tions in addition to those which they perform at present, 
and we therefore recommend that two members of the 
Commissioners of Prisons be paid each a salary of $5,000 
a year, and be required to devote their whole time to the 
performance of their duties as members of the commission. 
If two members of the Commissioners of Prisons are paid 
adequate salaries, the Commonwealth will have the service 
of two persons who can afford to devote their whole time to 
its service, and at the same time will secure through the 
unpaid members such advice and counsel as they may be 
able to render. 

We further recommend that the Commonwealth shall 
have the right to purchase or take such of the land and 
buildings now used for the county prisons as it may be 
deemed best to make use of in carrying out the recom- 
mendations made above. 

Accommodation for the prisoners now in the county jails 
and houses of correction may be furnished by the Common- 
wealth in such a way as may hereafter be judged advisable, 
by taking all the present county buildings, by taking only 
such as may be advantageously used, or by new construc- 
tion. Questions of this nature must be decided by the 
authorities who have the change of system to carry out. 

The adoption of the above recommendations will involve 
expense to the Commonwealth in the taking of land and 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 51 

buildings, in the payment of salaries and in the mainten- 
ance of the institutions. On the other hand the counties 
Avill be saved the expense now incumbent upon them in the 
maintenance of their jails and houses of correction and in 
the support of the criminals who are a charge upon them. 
There can be no doubt that the immediate expense to the 
Commonwealth will be amply repaid by the beneficent re- 
sults to the community from this change. If the system is 
developed with care and skill its eventual result will be 
what the result of the scientific treatment and classification 
of criminals has been elsewhere, a less number of prisoners 
to be supported, and less expense to the State. 

The State Farm. 

According to the report of the State Board of Lunacy and 
Charity for 1896, there were on September 30, 1895, at this 
institution 574 prisoners, 244 insane criminals and 135 
paupers, making a total of 953 inmates, of whom 818 were 
criminals, either sane or insane. It is needless to present 
arguments to show that the association in the same in- 
stitution of sane and insane criminals and of the sane poor, 
dependent upon public charity, is undesirable and cannot, in 
the nature of things, lead to the best results. 

We recommend that the insane criminals be removed 
from the State asylum for insane criminals at Bridgewater 
as soon as is practicable, and moreover, that the paupers at 
the State Parm, who are comparatively so few in number, 
be removed to some other institution or place away from the 
close association with criminals ; that the State Farm be 
eventually used as one of the prisons of the Commonwealth 
solely for the occupation of prisoners sentenced by the 
courts ; that it be governed in the same manner as the other 
prisons and be placed under the supervision of the Commis- 
sioners of Prisons. 

Release of Prisoners upon Permits to be at Liberty. 

The law of the Commonwealth (P. S., c. 88, § 6, c. 

220, §§ 66, 68; Sta. 1884, c. 152; 1889, c. 245; 1895, 

c. 449, § 16) provides that when it appears to the county 



52 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

commissioners, or in the county of Suffolk to the Institutions 
Commissioner, that persons confined in a jail, house of cor- 
rection or other place of confinement in their respective 
jurisdictions, on conviction before a trial justice or police, 
district or municipal court of any of the following offences, 
have reformed, viz. : of being rogues, vagabonds, persons 
who use any juggling or any unlawful games or plays, pipers 
and fiddlers, stubborn children, runaways, common drunk- 
ards, common night-walkers, both male and female, pilferers, 
lewd, wanton and lascivious persons in speech or behavior, 
common railers and brawlers, persons who neglect their 
calling or employment, misspend what they earn and do not 
provide for themselves or for the support of their families, 
and all other disorderly persons, including those persons 
who neglect all lawful business and habitually spend their 
time by frequenting houses of ill fame, gaming houses or 
tippling shops ; or that persons imprisoned for drunkenness 
in a jail, house of correction or other place of confinement 
in their respective jurisdictions have reformed, the county 
commissioners and the Institutions Commissioner, the latter 
with the approval of a justice of the court which imposed 
the sentence, may issue to such persons a permit to be at 
liberty during the remainder of their terms of sentence ; and 
the authority that has issued such a permit may revoke the 
same at any time previous to the expiration of the original 
terms of sentence. 

If the holder of a permit shall violate any of the terms 
or conditions of the permit, or any laws of this Common- 
wealth, such violation shall of itself make the permit void ; 
and when any permit, granted as aforesaid, has been revoked 
by the authority which granted it, or has become void, that 
authority may issue an order authorizing the arrest of the 
holder of the permit and his return to the place of confine- 
ment from which he was released. The holder of the per- 
mit, when returned to the place of confinement from which 
he was released, shall be detained therein according to the 
terms of his original sentence, and in computing the period 
of his confinement, the time between his release upon said 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 53 

permit and his return to said place of confinement shall 
not be taken to be any part of the term of his sentence. 

The law gives to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity 
like powers of release of persons confined for like offences 
in the State Farm. 

The county commissioners, and for the county of Suffolk 
the Institutions Commissioner, may release, upon such con- 
ditions as they deem best, any person imprisoned in a jail 
or house of correction for an offence other than a felony 
upon a sentence of not more than six months, or upon a 
longer sentence of which not more than six months remains 
unexpired, if a probation officer recommends the release of 
the prisoner and the court which imposed the sentence, or 
in case of the superior court, the district attorney, concurs 
in such recommendation. They may require a bond for 
the fulfilment of the conditions, and the surety upon such 
a bond may at any time take and surrender his principal to 
the county commissioners or the Institutions Commissioner, 
and they may at any time order such a prisoner to return to 
the prison from which he was released. (P. S., c. 220, 
§ 69; Sts. 1889, c. 245; 1895, c. 449, § 16.) 

After six months from the time of sentence the county 
commissioners or the Institutions Commissioner, the latter 
with the approval of a justice of the court which imposed 
the sentence, may discharge any person committed to the 
house of correction, and the directors of a workhouse or 
house of industry may discharge any person committed to 
such institution as a common night-walker upon being satis- 
fied that the prisoner has reformed. (P. S., c. 220, § 67; 
Sts. 1889, c. 245; 1895, c, 449, § 16.) This power is 
vested in the State Board of Lunacy and Charity as to in- 
mates of the State Farm. (P. S., c. 88, § 6; St. 1886, 
c 101, § 4.) 

The Commissioners of Prisons, the county commissioners, 
the Institutions Commissioner, the latter with the approval 
of a justice of the court which imposed the sentence, and the 
trustees of the State Farm have authority to permit prison- 
ers to be at liberty subject to certain conditions upon 



54 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

deduction from the term of their imprisonment for good 
conduct. (P. S., c. 222, § 20; Sts. 1889, c. 245; 1894, 
c. 258; 1895, c. 449, § 16.) 

Powers are given to the Commissioners of Prisons to 
issue a permit to be at liberty during the remainder of the 
term of sentence, upon such conditions as they deem best, 
to any person imprisoned in the Reformatory Prison for 
"Women or in the Massachusetts Reformatory when it ap- 
pears to the Commissioners that such person has reformed ; 
and they may revoke such jjermit at any time previous to 
its expiration, provided that no permit shall be issued to the 
person transferred or removed from the State Prison to 
said Massachusetts Reformatory, except with the approval of 
the Governor and Council, and that no permit shall' be issued 
to a person sentenced to the Reformatory Prison for Women 
for an offence against person or property without the consent 
of the court which imposed the sentence, or, in case the sen- 
tence was imposed by the superior court, without the con- 
sent of the district attorney of the county or district where 
said person was convicted. (P. S., c. 221, § 52; St. 1884, 
c. 255, § 33.) 

In 1887 (St. 1887, c. 435), the Governor and Council 
were authorized to issue a permit to be at liberty during the 
remainder of his term of sentence, upon such conditions as 
they deem best, to any person sentenced to the State Prison 
as an habitual criminal when it shall appear to them that 
such person has reformed, and they may revoke said permit 
at any time previous to its expiration. The violation by 
the holder of a permit of any of its terms or conditions, 
or the violation of any of the laws of the Commonwealth, 
shall of itself make void said permit. 

In 1894 and 1895 (Sts. 1894, c. 440, and 1895, c. 252), 
the Commissioners of Prisons were given the power to 
release any prisoner held in State Prison upon his first 
sentence when it shall appear to the Commissioners that he 
has reformed, and they may issue to him a permit to be at 
liberty during the remainder of his term of sentence upon 
such terms and conditions as they may deem best, and they 
may revoke said permit at any time previous to its expira- 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 55 

tion. No such permit shall be granted until at least two- 
thirds of his term of sentence has expired, deducting from 
the court sentence the time to which he may be entitled for 
good behavior, nor without the approval of the Governor 
and Council, nor unless the prisoner has an assurance satis- 
factory to the commissioners that he will have employment 
as soon as he is discharged, or is otherwise so provided for 
that he will not become dependent upon either public or 
private charity. 

Upon a review of the above provisions of law, it is ap- 
parent that the only occasions when the Governor and 
Council are required to act in granting the permits to be at 
liberty are in the cases of prisoners released from the 
Massachusetts Reformatory who have been transferred to 
that institution from the State Prison, and in the cases of 
release of prisoners from the State Prison. It evidently 
was thought that when a prisoner, sentenced for a crime of 
such proportions as to require his imprisonment in the State 
Prison, was released on a permit to be at liberty, his release 
should have the sanction of the Governor and Council in 
addition to that of the Commissioners of Prisons. We see 
no reason why the burden of passing upon questions of this 
nature should be thrown upon the Governor and Council. 
If they are called upon to approve the action of the Commis- 
sioners of Prisons in granting permits to be at liberty, they 
may and do feej obliged to look into the case as thoroughly 
as if they were the only tribunal created to pass upon the 
question. This, as will be readily understood, involves 
much labor and great responsibility, and it seems unneces- 
sary that tw^o boards should be called upon to go over the 
same ground independently. Moreover, there seems no 
reason why the Commissioners of Prisons are not as capa- 
ble of issuing permits to be at liberty in the cases of persons 
sentenced as habitual criminals as in cases of persons sen- 
tenced to the State Prison for other crimes. The issuing 
of permits to be at liberty would be sufficiently guarded if 
the power is left with the Commissioners of Prisons alone. 

We therefore recommend that the provisions of law re- 
quiring original action or the approval of the Governor and 



56 CHAKITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

Council in the issuing of these permits, wherever they 
occur, be repealed, and that the Commissioners of Prisons 
be authorized to issue such permits in the cases of persons 
sentenced to the State Prison as habitual criminals. 



PROBATION. 



The law provides (Sts. 1891, c. 356; 1892, c. 242; 
1895, c. 449, § 15) that the justices of each municipal, 
police or district court shall appoint one person to per- 
form the duties of probation officer as hereinafter named 
under the jurisdiction of said court. The appointment 
of such officer for the municipal court of the city of 
Boston shall be made by the chief justice of said court, 
who may appoint as many assistants, not exceeding five, 
to said probation officer as are needed to carry out 
the purposes of the act, and each officer shall hold his 
office during the pleasure of the court making the appoint- 
ment. Each probation officer shall inquire into the nature 
of every criminal case brought before the court under 
whose jurisdiction he acts, and may recommend that any 
person convicted by said court be placed upon probation, 
and the court may place the person so convicted in the 
care of said officer for such time and upon such conditions 
as may seem proper. Each person released upon probation 
shall be furnished by the probation officer with a written 
statement of the terms and conditions of his release, and 
each probation officer shall keep full records of all cases 
investigated by him, of all cases placed in his care by the 
court, and of any other duties performed by him under the 
law. Each probation officer, moreover, shall make a 
monthly report to the Commissioners of Prisons in such form 
as the said commissioners shall direct. The compensation 
of each probation officer shall be determined by the justices 
of the court under whose jurisdiction he acts, subject to the 
approval of the county commissioners of the county in 
which the court is located, and shall be paid from the 
treasury of the county upon vouchers approved by said 



KEPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 57 

justices and the county commissioners, or, in the county 
of Suffolk, by the Institutions Commissioner. 

The law further provides that a probation officer may, at 
the request of any justice of the superior court, investigate 
the case of any person on trial in that court and make a re- 
port upon the same to the justice, and may upon the order 
of the court take on probation any person convicted in said 
court. The compensation for such service shall be paid 
from the treasury of the Commonwealth upon vouchers ap- 
proved by the justice. 

The probation officers may also perform the services 
required in the release of prisoners from the jails or houses 
of correction imprisoned for an offence other than felony 
upon a sentence of not more than six months, or upon a 
longer sentence of which not more than six months remain 
unexpired. 

The chief justice of the municipal court of the city of 
Boston is also authorized to appoint a woman to act as 
assistant to the probation officer under the jurisdiction of 
that court, and may, subject to the approval of the Institu- 
tions Commissioner, determine her compensation, which 
shall be paid from the treasury of the county of Suffolk 
upon vouchers approved by the justice and the said com- 
missioner. It shall be the duty of this assistant probation 
officer to investigate the cases of all women against whom a 
criminal charge is brought in said court, and to perform 
such duties as may be required of her by the justice of the 
court ; and she shall hold her office during the pleasure of 
the chief justice. (St. 1892, c. 276.) 

Actual disbursements for necessary expenses incurred by 
probation officers while in the performance of their duties 
shall be reimbursed to them out of the treasury of the 
county in which they serve if approved by the court or jus- 
tice by whom they are appointed, provided that no officer 
shall be allowed for such disbursements a greater sum than 
one hundred dollars in any one year. (St. 1894, c. 229.) 
Moreover, when a person has been placed on probation, the 
court may authorize and direct the probation officer to 
expend for his or her temporary support or transportation, 



58 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

or for both purposes, such reasonable sum as the court 
shall consider expedient, and the sum so expended shall be 
repaid to the probation officer from the county treasury by 
vouchers approved by the court authorizing the expenditure. 
(St. 1894, c. 368.) 

In case of the absence of the probation officer, the justice 
of any police, district or municipal court may appoint a 
probation officer temporarily, who shall have all the powers 
and perform all the duties of probation officers, and who 
shall receive as compensation for each day's services a sum 
equal to the rate per day of the salary of the probation 
officer, to be paid by the county ; provided that the com- 
pensation so paid for in excess of every fourteen days' 
services by a probation officer in any one calendar year 
shall be deducted by the county treasurer from the salary 
of the probation officer. (St. 1894, c. 372.) 

The above provisions of law provide for a system of pro- 
bation which has worked with admirable results in this 
Commonwealth. The experiment of dealing with certain 
cases of offenders by means of probation has succeeded 
beyond a question, and will undoubtedly, as time goes on, 
be perfected in many respects as the practice of the system 
grows. The legislation authorizing the appointment of pro- 
bation officers shows how, after the system was instituted and 
its value appreciated, need was felt for its extension. In 
1880 the aldermen of any city, with the exception of Boston, 
and the selectmen of any town were authorized to estab- 
lish the office of probation officer. In the city of Boston the 
appointment of one probation officer had been made obliga- 
tory in 1878. (P. S., c. 212, § 74, et seq.) In 1891 (St. 
1891, c. 356) the above provisions of law were repealed 
and it was made mandatory upon the justice of each munic- 
ipal, police or district court to appoint one probation officer, 
and the chief justice of the municipal court of the city of 
Boston was authorized to appoint assistants to the probation 
officer in that city not exceeding three in number. In 1892 
(St. 1892, c. 242) the number of assistants which the 
chief justice of the municipal court of the city of Boston 
was authorized to appoint was increased to five. 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 59 

Thus within six years the appointment of probation 
officers, where it was originally permissive, has been made 
mandatory, and the number of those officers has been largely 
increased in the city of Boston. 

With the view of further improving the system we rec- 
ommend : 

That there be appointed an additional woman assistant to 
the probation officer of the municipal court of the city of 
Boston. There is need of such an assistant to properly 
investigate the cases of women against whom criminal 
charges are brought in that court. 

That the chief justice of the superior court be authorized, 
if in his judgment it be deemed best, to appoint a probation 
officer for that court in the city of Boston. Many cases 
which would be the subjects of careful observation by the 
probation officer in the municipal court of the city of Boston 
are appealed to the superior court. We see no reason why 
those cases, after appeal, should not be subject to the super- 
vision and care of a probation officer, as well as before. 
There are, moreover, many cases begun in the superior 
court which are as worthy of the attention of the probation 
officer as those begun in the lower courts. If, therefore, 
the present provision of law, authorizing a probation officer, 
at the request of any justice of the superior court, to investi- 
gate the case of any person on trial in that court, does not 
provide for ample probation service for the superior court, 
we deem it right that an opportunity should be given to 
that court to obtain a probation officer of its own, at any 
rate in the city of Boston. 

The establishment of a Department for Children, and the 
adoption of the suggestions which we have made as to the 
necessity of having proper officers representing that depart- 
ment at every hearing before the courts which involve the 
disposition of children charged with offences, will undoubt- 
edly aid in the careful disposition of the juvenile offenders 
by the different courts of the Commonwealth, and should 
render unnecessary the appointment of probation officers 
for the special supervision of children. The responsibility 
for work of that character should be concentrated in the 
Department for Children. 



60 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

The special application of the system of probation to per- 
sons charged with drunkenness is dealt with in another part 
of this report, under the head of drunkenness. 



DRUNKENNESS. 



The total of the commitments to all the penal institutions 
for the year ending September 30, 1895, was 27,466; 
18,373 of these were for drunkenness. Of the 25,123 
commitments which were made in that year to the houses of 
correction and county jails, including the Boston House of 
Industry, 17,265 were for drunkenness. Of these, a num- 
ber doubtless were guilty of some other offence. 

From these figures we see that in each comparison the 
number of commitments for drunkenness is more than 
two-thirds of all the commitments made. Looking at it in 
another way, of the 336 prisoners in the custody of the 
Reformatory Prison for Women on September 30, 1895, 
144 were in custody for drunkenness. Of the 1,011 pris- 
oners in the Massachusetts Reformatory upon the date above 
mentioned, 132 were held for drunkenness. Of the 574 
prisoners at the State Farm, 429 were held for drunkenness, 
and of the 5,007 prisoners in the county prisons, including 
the Boston House of Industry, 2,564 were held for drunk- 
enness. Of 6,928 prisoners, which was the total number 
held in these institutions on September 30, 1895, 3,269 
prisoners were in custody for drunkenness, or, in other 
words, almost one-half of the total number of prisoners in 
the prisons above named, at the time named, were held on 
that charge. 

When one-half of the prisoners within the Commonwealth 
are made up of a class of people who are all convicted of 
one and the same offence, it seems that the time has come 
to direct attention particularly to the treatment of that 
offence, and great doubt must necessarily arise whether the 
best method of dealing with it has yet been discovered. 
Everybody must appreciate that a man who has been guilty 
of drunkenness alone cannot with advantage be placed in a 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 61 

prison to associate with men who have been guilty of crimes, 
and that to take a young man who has been convicted simply 
of being drunk and to send him to an institution with 
criminals will put a stamp upon him from which he may 
never recover. 

There are many cases where a man may drink occasion- 
ally and the rest of the time be a sober, hard-working man 
and able to support his family. By the existing method of 
punishment for drunkenness by imprisonment such a man 
is removed from his family, is unable to support them and is 
placed for a greater or less period of time in the care of the 
State, which rarely makes any effort to reform him. In the 
mean while his family may be driven to become dependent 
upon public charity. The preservation of a man's self- 
respect and the proper support of his family, if he have one, 
receive apparently little consideration under the present 
method of dealing with drunkenness. The preservation of 
the former and the keeping, if possible, of a family from 
becoming dependent upon public charity are two most im- 
portant constituent elements in the maintenance of a proper 
condition of the community, and we do not believe that a 
punishment which loses sight of these two most important 
considerations can be the right system to be employed in 
this Commonwealth. The Commissioners of Prisons will 
undoubtedly give this matter their most careful attention 
with a view to diminish to as great an extent as possible im- 
prisonment as a punishment for drunkenness. 

The laws regulating the punishment for drunkenness have 
been changed within a few years. In 1891 the provisions 
of law, which up to that time had governed this subject, 
were repealed and a new method of punishment was pre- 
scribed (St. 1891, c. 427). This method has since been 
changed in several respects. (See Sts. 1892, c. 303; 
1893, c. 414 andc. 447.) 

In 1891 punishment of drunkenness by fine was abolished, 
and the result was strikingly noticeable in the number of 
commitments for that offence. The law was approved 
June 11, 1891. During the year 1891 there were 19,794 
commitments for drunkenness. In 1892, the year following 



62 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

the change in the law abolishing a fine as a penalt}^, there 
were 8,634 commitments. In 1893 the law was changed by 
partially restoring the fine. The St. of 1893, c. 447, 
provides that if a person convicted of drunkenness shall 
satisfy the court or trial justice by his own statement or 
otherwise that he has not been arrested for drunkenness 
twice before within twelve months next preceding, or that 
he has been arrested and tried twice before and acquitted in 
one of the cases, his case may be placed on file ; or he may 
be punished by a fine not exceeding $15, and in case of the 
non-payment of such fine shall be committed to a jail, house 
of industry or house of correction, or to a workhouse, if 
there is any which has a criminal department in the city or 
town where the offence was committed, until the fine is paid, 
not, however, exceeding thirty days. The result of this 
change in the law was to raise the number of commitments 
for drunkenness in 1894 to 16,335, and since that time the 
number has gone on continually increasing. 

The result, therefore, of the imposition of a fine as a pun- 
ishment for drunkenness is to increase largely the commit- 
ments nominally for that offence to the prisons of the 
Commonwealth, which means that the persons committed 
are sent to prison, not because they have been guilty of an 
offence which must necessarily in itself be punished by im- 
prisonment, but because they are too poor to pay the fine 
imposed upon them. Such people who are unable to raise 
the money to pay the fine are, in fact, imprisoned for their 
poverty and not for the offence of drunkenness. The result 
is that the man who is well off pays his fine and goes at 
large and the poor man is sent to prison and incurs all the 
disgrace attendant upon having been a criminal. 

We believe that the policy declared in 1891 by the Legis- 
lature of that year, which declares against the imposition of 
a fine as a punishment for drunkenness, is the right policy; 
and we recommend that the present law be changed and that 
the penalty of a fine for drunkenness be abolished. 

The St. of 1891, c. 427, § 6, prescribes that it shall 
be the duty of probation officers to assist the courts, by 
which they are severally appointed, by obtaining and fur- 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSION. 63 

nishing information in regard to previous arrests, convic- 
tions and imprisonments for drunkenness, and such other 
facts as the court shall direct, concerning the persons ac- 
cused of drunkenness. It prescribes in section seven that 
the probation officer shall keep a full record of each case 
that is investigated, and there are other provisions of the 
statutes, not necessary here to set out at large, providing 
for the full use by the courts of the records so kept. 

The largest application of the probation system to the 
offence of drunkenness should work beneficially, both for 
the community and for the offenders themselves. It will 
likewise result in the reduction of the number of prisoners 
to be maintained by the Commonwealth, and thus in more 
economical expenditure by the Commonwealth for the care 
of its prisoners. If the present number of the probation 
officers, with the addition of a woman probation officer in 
the municipal court for the city of Boston, which we recom- 
mend in another part of this report, is not sufficient to fur- 
nish all the necessary information to the courts, we believe 
that if this fact be brought to the attention of the Legislat- 
ure of the Commonwealth legislation can be secured provid- 
ing for a larger number. 

We recommend that if the Commonwealth assume the con- 
trol and maintenance of the prisoners which are now placed 
in the county prisons, the indeterminate sentence law be 
made applicable to all persons sent to the prisons of the 
Commonwealth. This extension of the indeterminate sen- 
tence law will be particularly beneficial in its result when 
applied to prisoners convicted of drunkenness. As the law 
stands now, unless a person convicted of such offence is 
sentenced to the Massachusetts Reformatory he is sentenced 
to prison for a definite period, the court fixing the length of 
his term of sentence. The result is that, in the latter class 
of cases, the sentences for drunkenness differ in length of 
time according to the disposition of the judge, one man 
being sentenced perhaps for sixty days and another man for 
six months for the same offence. If it is provided by law 
that the judge shall simply sentence the offender to prison, 
and if the Legislature prescribes the maximum length of 



64 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

time during which a prisoner may be kept in prison, all per- 
sons guilty of the same offence will have similar sentences, 
and it will remain for the authorities having the power to 
release on permits to be at liberty to determine in each 
case whether the prisoner is fit to go at large without injury 
to the community and with benefit to himself and his family. 
We see no reason why simple drunkenness, without other 
offence against the law, should be treated as a crime and be 
a cause of arrest, except in the case of habitual and con- 
firmed drunkards, who should be subjected to reformatory 
treatment. 



The resolve under which we were appointed and have 
pursued our investigations, and now present our recom- 
mendations, requires us to act "with a view to securing 
economy and efficiency in the care of the poor and insane 
in this Commonwealth." We are satisfied that our rec- 
ommendations, if carried out, will result both in greater 
efficiency and in wiser economy, which includes less ex- 
pense to the State, 



APPENDICES 



APPENDICES 



Appendix A. 

An Act to establish the department for children. 
Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1. The governor, with the advice and con- Department 
sent of the council, shall appoint seven persons, three of how organ- ' 
whom at least shall be women, who shall constitute the ' 
department for children. The persons so appointed shall 
hold their offices for seven years, provided that the terms 
of office of the seven first appointed shall be so arranged 
that the term of one shall expire each year. One of the 
persons so appointed shall be selected from the board of 
trustees of the Lyman and Industrial schools. The chair- 
man of the department shall be named by the governor, 
with the advice and consent of the council. All vacan- 
cies in said department, whether occurring by expiration 
of term or otherwise, shall be filled by the governor, with 
the advice and consent of the council, and no person em- 
ployed by the board and receiving compensation shall be 
a member thereof. The members of the department may 
be removed by the governor, with the advice and consent 
of the council, for cause. 

Section 2. The department shall be a corporation Tobeacorpo- 
for the purpose of taking, holding and investing in trust ' 

for the Commonwealth any grant or devise of lands and 
any gift or bequest of money or other personal property 
for the purposes for which it is trustee. 

Section 3. The department shall be provided with Meetings, re- 
rooms at the expense of the state, and shall hold meet- p ° ' e 
ings each month on a day fixed by itself and at such other 
times as may be needful. It shall make its own by-laws 
and shall make a report of its doings to the governor and 
council on or before the thirty-first day of December in 
each year, such report being made up to the thirtieth 



68 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



To appoint its 
agents, etc. 



Powers, du- 
ties, etc. 



To provide for 
certain chil- 
dren from 
Lyman and 
Industrial 
schools, etc. 



day of September inclusive. The report shall contain a 
full statement of the work of the department and its ex- 
penditures, including a list of all the salaried officers 
employed in the department, with the salaries of said 
officers, and an inventory of all the property held by it 
as trustee for the state. 

Section 4. The department shall have full power to 
appoint such agents and other subordinate officers as it 
deems fit, and to fix their compensation, subject to the 
approval of the governor and council; and the amount 
paid for salaries of officers and agents employed by the 
department shall not exceed the sum appropriated by the 
legislature for this purpose. The department shall have 
the power to make such rules and regulations governing 
its officers, agents and its work generally as it may deem 
best. 

Section 5. All the powers possessed by and all the 
duties incumbent upon the state board of lunacy and 
charity, relative to the care, custody and control of juve- 
nile offenders and the juvenile wards of the Common- 
wealth, are hereby taken from the said state board of 
lunacy and charity and vested in the department for chil- 
dren, and the said department is hereby authorized and 
empowered to assume and exercise the same. The de- 
partment shall succeed to all rights, powers and duties of 
the state board of lunacy and charity in regard to all 
juvenile offenders and juvenile wards now in charge of 
the state board, and the care and custody of the same 
are hereby transferred to said department ; but this succes- 
sion and transfer shall not in any way impair the sen- 
tence of any child committed to the state board of lunacy 
and charity, and such child shall be held by the said de- 
partment under the original commitment without further 
process of law until the term of sentence expires, unless 
sooner discharged. 

Section 6. Whenever in the opinion of the trustees 
of the Lyman and Industrial schools any children in those 
schools will be better provided for outside thereof, said 
trustees shall have the power to release such children on 
probation, and shall deliver such children into the care 
and custody of the department for children. Said depart- 



APPENDIX. 69 

merit shall make all necessary provision for such children, 
and shall have the same powers and be subject to the 
same duties with regard to the same as are possessed by 
or are incumbent upon it in regard to other children in its 
care and under its control. Upon such delivery to the 
said department for children, the trustees of the Lyman 
and Industrial schools shall be relieved from all responsi- 
bility in regard to the children so delivered until such 
children are returned to the said schools by the said de- 
partment. The said department may, whenever it is 
deemed best by it, return children so delivered to it to 
the school from which they came, and when so returned 
such children shall serve out the term for which they were 
originally committed to said school unless sooner dis- • 
charged. All the childreu who, at the time of the pas- 
sage of this act, shall be in their usual homes or in any 
situation or family, having been placed there by ihe 
trustees of the Lyman and Industrial schools in accord- 
ance with the provisions of sections three and four of 
chapter four hundred and twenty-eight of the acts of the 
year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, shall be deemed 
to have been delivered by the said board of trustees to 
the said department in accordance with the provisions of 
this section, and shall be treated by said department in 
accordance with the above provisions of law. 

Section 7. Sections three and four of chapter four Repeal, 
hundred and twenty-eight of the acts of the year eighteen §5 3,V ' 
hundred and ninety-five are hereby repealed. 

Section 8. The department shall employ suitable To employ 

- • ,, ! it/. 11 ,r agents to rep- 

agentS to represent it in all the courts and before all the resent it in 

courts cfco 

magistrates of the Commonwealth, and it shall be the 
duty of such agents to investigate into the condition of 
every child brought before such court or magistrate and 
to assist the court or magistrate in the disposition of such 
child. Such agents, when requested by the court or 
magistrate, shall in regard to juvenile offenders perform 
all duties prescribed by law for probation officers. They, 
subject to the direction of the department, may have the 
custody of such offenders during the whole or any part of 
the period of probation, and may at any time during such 
period take such offenders, without warrant, and surrender 



70 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



Children under 
twelve years of 
age to be com- 
mitted to de- 
partment, for 
non-payment 
of fine. 



Children under 
fourteen years 
of age, held as 
witnesses, to 
be committed 
to department, 
etc. 



May establish 
houses for 
keeping of 
children, etc. 



To place chil- 
dren in se- 
lected places; 
powers of 
transfer, etc. 



them to the court or magistrate permitting the probation. 
The agents and other officers of the department, more- 
over, are hereby authorized, whenever requested by any 
court or magistrate, to serve all criminal process in all 
cases against alleged juvenile offenders. 

'Section 9. Whenever any child under twelve years 
of age is adjudged guilty of an offence punishable by fine, 
the court or magistrate, upon non-payment of the fine or 
costs, or both, shall commit such child to the custody of 
the department for children for a period not exceeding 
thirty days, and said department is authorized to make all 
proper porvisions for the safe keeping of said child. 

Section 10. Whenever any child under fourteen years 
of age is held as a witness in any case before any court 
or magistrate, such court or magistrate may commit said 
child to the custody of the department for children, and 
said department is authorized to make all proper pro- 
visions for the safe keeping of said child, and for his or 
her presence at the examination or trial for which he or 
she is held as a witness. 

Section 11. The department may establish houses for 
the keeping of children in its care or custody, and for this 
purpose it may hire or buy such property as may be neces- 
sary. Children who are unfit to be placed in families may 
be placed in a hospital or in an appropriate institution. 

Section 12. The department shall place the children 
in its care or custody in places or with persons selected or 
approved by the department, with or without payment of 
board, and with or without indenture or contract, and, 
in its discretion, may place such children in their usual 
homes. The department shall have full power from time 
to time, whenever it thinks best, to transfer any child in 
its care or custody to another home, place or person, and 
said department may discharge from its care, custody 
or control any child whenever in the opinion of the de- 
partment such discharge will be for the best interests of 
such child ; and in case of the discharge of any child 
committed to it, the department shall make an entry upon 
its records of the name of such child and of the person to 
whom it is sent, the date of such discharge and the reason 
therefor, and a copy of such record shall be transmitted 



APPENDIX. 71 

to the court, magistrate or other authority by whom such 
child was committed 

Section 13. The department shall visit, by itself or Toviaitciiii 

_ " dren in its 

by its agents, at least once a year and as much oftener as care, custody, 

. etc 

it shall deem best, all children in its care, custody or con- 
trol, and it shall keep full records of the surroundings, 
condition and conduct of each child. 

Section 14. The department shall make such reports To make re- 

i • * • i i-i*i. ports to state 

and s;ive such information to the state board of chanty as board of 

J charity, 
the latter board may from time to time require, as to the 

number and whereabouts of the children in its care, 

custody and control, and as to its expenditure of money 

and general work. 

Section 15. Section eighteen of chapter two hundred poll's sis 
and fifteen of the Public Statutes is hereby repealed. 

Section 16. Section one of chapter three hundred and ^ e c?3^ n J'i. 
eighty-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and 
ninety-six is hereby amended in the fourth, fifth, sixth, 
seventh and eighth lines thereof by striking out the words 
" state board of lunacy and charity or by the trustees of 
the Lyman and Industrial schools or kept under the con- 
trol of either of said boards," and inserting in place thereof 
the words < ' department for children or kept under the 
control of said department." 

Section 17. The acts and parts of acts specified in Amendments, 
the annexed schedule are hereby amended by striking out 
the words "state board of lunacy and charity," " board 
of lunacy and charity" and " state board" wherever they 
occur therein and substituting in place thereof the words 
" department for children." 

Schedule of Acts and Parts of Acts amended. 

Public Statutes. 

Chapter 48, section 27, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, 
section 4. — Of the employment of children and 
regulations respecting them. 

Chapter 84, sections 21, 23. — Of the support of paupers by 
cities and towns. 

Chapter 86, sections 44, 45, 46. — Of alien passengers and state 
paupers. 

Chapter 89, sections 22, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56. — Of the state primary 
and reform schools and the visitation and reforma- 
tion of juvenile offenders. 



72 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-two. 

Chapter 127, section 2, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, 
section 4. — An act relating to juvenile offenders. 

Chapter 181, sections 2 and 3, as amended by statute 1886, chap- 
ter 101, section 4. — An act relating to indigent 
and neglected children. 

Chapter 270, section 3, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, 
section 4, and by statute 1892, chapter 318, section 
16. — An act for the better protection of children. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-three. 

Chapter 110, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, section 
4. — An act relative to the trial of juvenile 
offenders. 

Chapter 232, section 3, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, 
section 4. — An act relating to indigent and neg- 
lected children. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-six. 
Chapter 330, section 2. — An act relating to indigent and neg- 
lected children. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-seven. 
Chapter 401, section 1, as amended by statute 1893, chapter 197, 
section 2. — An act relating to the enforcement 
of the law for placing pauper children in families. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-eight. 
Chapter 248, section 1. — An act concerning neglected children 
and juvenile offenders. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-nine. 
Chapter 309, section 2, as amended by statute 1891, chapter 194. 

— An act for the better protection of infants. 
Chapter 309, section 3. — An act for the better protection of 

infants. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-two. 
, Chapter 318, sections 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15. — An act 
to provide for the licensing and regulating of 
boarding houses for infants. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-three. 
Chapter 217, section 1. — An act relating to indigent and neg- 
lected infants in the state almshouse. 
Chapter 252, section 1. — An act relating to indigent and neg- 
lected children. 



APPENDIX. 73 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-five. 

Chapter 310, section 1. — An act to provide for the appointment 

of a special district police officer. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-six. 
Chapter 382, section 1. — An act relative to the cost of education 
in the public schools of children under charge of 
the state board of lunacy and charity or of the 
trustees of the Lyman and Industrial schools. 

The acts and parts of acts specified in the annexed 
schedule are hereby amended by striking out the word 
"board" wherever it occurs in the lines named and sub- 
stituting therefor the word " department." 

Schedule of Acts and Parts of Acts amended. 

Public Statutes. 
Chapter 89, section 22, in the 3d and 7th lines thereof. — Of 
the state primary and reform schools and the 
visitation and reformation of juvenile offenders. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-two. 

Chapter 127, section 2, in the 6th line. — An act relating to juve- 
nile offenders. 

Chapter 181, section 3, in the 11th and 17th lines. — An act relat- 
ing to indigent and neglected children. 

Chapter 270, section 3, in the 8th and 9th lines. — An act for the 
better protection of children. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-three. 

Chapter 110, in the 11th line. — An act relative to the control of 
juvenile offenders. 

Chapter 232, section 3, in the 8th line. — An act relating to indi- 
gent and neglected children. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-seven. 
Chapter 401, section 1, in the 15th line. — An act relating to the 
enforcement of the law for placing pauper chil- 
dren in families. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-nine. 
Chapter 309, section 2, in the 6th line — An act for the better 
protection of infants. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-two. 
Chapter 318, section 15, in the 10th line. — An act to provide for 
the licensing and regulating of boarding houses 
for infants. 



74 CHAKITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-three. 
Chapter 217, section 1, in the 5th line. — An act relating to indi- 
gent and neglected infants in the state alms- 
house. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-five. 

Chapter 310, section 2. — An act to provide for the appointment 

of a special district police officer. 

effect 1 totake Section 18. This act shall take effect upon the first 
day of October, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, but 
the members of the department for children may be ap- 
pointed at any time after the passage of this act, and 
may appoint agents and officers and assign their duties 
before the said first day of October, eighteen hundred 
and ninety-seven. 

An Act to prevent neglected children from being- 
sent TO THE TRUANT SCHOOLS. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 

state board of Section 1 . All children ordered to a truant school 

charity to 

transfer cer- under the provisions of section twenty- eight of chapter 
from truant f our hundred and ninety-eight of the acts of the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety-four shall, upon the passage 
of this act, be transferred by the state board of charity 
from the said truant schools to the care and custody of 
the department for children, and any child so transferred 
shall be held by the department for children under the 
original order of commitment of the judge or justice with- 
out any further process of law. 
§ 28 18 amended Section 2. Section twenty-eight of chapter four hun- 
dred and ninety- eight of the acts of the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-four is hereby amended in the tenth 
line thereof by striking out the word " nineteen" and in- 
serting in place thereof the word " twenty- six," and by 
adding at the end of said section the following words : 
" or such judge or justice may in his discretion commit 
such children to the care and custody of the department 
for children for like terms." 

Section 3. This act shall take effect upon the first 
day of July next. 



APPENDIX. 75 



An Act to prevent truants from being sentenced 
to certain nouses of reformation. 

Be it enacted, etc., as jolloivs : 

Section 1. All persons convicted of being habitual J^^be*" 1 " 
truants or of the offences described in section twelve of transferred 

from certain 

chapter forty-eight of the Public Statutes who "have been Nation etc 
sentenced to houses of reformation established under the 
provisions of section eighteen of chapter two hundred and 
twenty of the Public Statutes shall, upon the passage of 
this act, be transferred by the commissioners of prisons 
from said houses of reformation to the truant schools. 
Persons so transferred shall be held in the truant schools 
under the original order of commitment and without fur- 
ther process of law. 

Section 2. Section nineteen of chapter two hundred fe'p^aled. 5 19 ' 
and twenty of the Public Statutes is hereby repealed. 

Section 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage, 



Appendii: B. 

An Act to establish the state board of insanity. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1 . The governor, with the advice and consent state board of 

° insanity, how 

of the council, shall appoint five persons, not more than organized, etc. 
two of whom shall be physicians, who shall constitute the 
state board of insanity. The persons so appointed shall 
hold their offices for five years : provided, that the terms 
of office of the five first appointed shall be so arranged 
that the term of one shall expire each year. All vacan- 
cies in said board, whether occurring by expiration of 
term or otherwise, shall be filled by the governor, with 
the advice and consent of the council. Two of the per- 
sons so appointed shall be experts in insanity, and shall 
devote their whole time to the performance of their duties 
as members of the said board, and shall each receive a 
salary of five thousand dollars a year and his expenses 
actually incurred in the performance of his duties. The 



76 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

other members of the board, including the chairman, who 
shall be designated by the governor, with the advice and 
consent of the council, shall receive no salaries, but shall 
be paid only their necessary expenses actually incurred 
in the performance of their duties. The members of the 
board may be removed by the governor, with the advice 
and consent of the council, for cause. 

2ffiS§B?SJ. Its Section 2. The board shall have the power to appoint 
such agents and subordinate officers as it may deem requi- 
site, and to fix their compensation, subject to the ap- 
proval of the governor; and the amount paid for the 
salaries of officers and agents employed by the board 
shall not exceed the sum appropriated by the legislature 
for this purpose. The board, unless otherwise provided, 
may assign any of its powers and duties to agents ap- 
pointed for the purpose and may execute any of its func- 
tions by such agents, or by committees appointed from and 
by said board. The board shall ~be provided with rooms 
at the expense of the state, and shall hold meetings each 
month, on a day fixed by itself, and at such other times 
as may be needful. It shall make its own by-laws, and 
shall make a report of its doings to the governor and 
council on or before the thirty-first day of December in 
each year, such report being made up to the thirtieth day 
of September inclusive. 

annuafreport. Section 3. The board shall embody in its report a 
properly classified and tabulated statement of the receipts 
and expenses of the said board and of each of the several 
State institutions under its supervision for the said year, 
and a corresponding classified and tabulated statement of 
their estimates for the year ensuing, with its opinion as to 
the necessity or expediency of appropriations in accord- 
ance with said estimates ; but this provision shall not 
apply to estimates for the ordinary expenses of the hospi- 
tals or asylums for the insane. Said report shall also 
present a concise review of the work of the several insti- 
tutions under the supervision of the board for the year 
preceding, with such suggestions and recommendations as 
to the said institutions and as to the general interests of 
insane persons throughout the Commonwealth as may be 
deemed expedient. 



APPENDIX. 77 

Section 4. The board shall present information em- To present 
bodying the experience of institutions for the insane in mationasto 
this and other countries regarding the best and most sue- etc? 61 
cessful methods of caring for the insane, and it shall also 
encourage scientific investigation in the matter and treat- 
ment of insanity by the medical staffs of the various 
institutions under its supervision, and shall publish from 
time to time bulletins and reports of the scientific and 
clinical work done therein. 

Section 5. The board shall prescribe to the superin- To prescribe 

i -,-, i- certain statist!- 

tendents of the several hospitals and asylums for the in- cai forms, etc. 

sane the forms for statistical returns to be made by them 
in their annual reports, in relation to the sex, age and 
nativities of the inmates and the places from which they 
were sent. It shall also prescribe the form of certificates 
required of mayors of cities or overseers of the poor of 
towns when a pauper is sent therefrom to any one of the 
state hospitals or institutions for the insane, which certifi- 
cate shall contain such inquiry in relation to the age, 
parentage, birthplace and former residence of, and other 
facts relating to, the insane poor person as the board may 
deem necessary, to which mayors and overseers of the 
poor shall render true answers, so far as they are able, be- 
fore the insane poor person is received into any one of the 
said insane hospitals or institutions. The several cities 
and towns shall be furnished by the board with blank 
forms for said certificates. 

Section 6. The trustees of the several state hospitals To receive 

_ . _ ,. . , ,. .. i i • • i annual inven- 

and asylums for the insane shall annually on the thirtieth tory of certain 

o i inn institutions, 

day of September cause to be made and sent to the board etc. 
an accurate inventory of the stock and supplies on hand 
and the amount and value thereof at the hospitals under 
the following heads : live stock on the farm, produce of 
the farm on hand, carriages and agricultural implements, 
machinery and mechanical fixtures, beds and bedding in 
the inmates' department, other furniture in the inmates' 
department, personal property of the state in the super- 
intendent's department, ready-made clothing, dry goods, 
provisions and groceries, drugs and medicine, fuel, library. 

Section 7. The board shall keep records of all patients To keep rec- 
ords of pa- 
and attend to the enforcement of the laws with regard to tients and to 



78 CHAKITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

enforce law of commitments, and shall keep records of the same, and all 
etc. ' institutions under its inspection and supervision shall be 

obliged to furnish all the information required by the 
board. 
vision V of Super " Section 8. The board shall have general supervision 
tion^etc" 8 * 1 * 11 " over a ^ ^ ne state hospitals and asylums for the insane and 
all other institutions and receptacles for the insane or 
feeble-minded, public or private, the Massachusetts hos- 
pital for epileptics, the Massachusetts hospital for dipso- 
maniacs and inebriates, the Massachusetts school for the 
feeble-minded, the hospital cottages for children, and of all 
insane persons who may be placed at board by the trustees 
of the several hospitals and asylums for the insane ; and 
the said board may, when directed by the governor, assume 
and exercise the powers of the boards of trustees of said 
institutions in any matter relating to the management 
thereof. 
T i an^etc* neW Section 9. The board shall inspect all plans for new 
buildings, and for the extension, alteration or repair of 
existing buildings to be used by the Commonwealth as 
hospitals or asylums for the insane ; and no such build- 
ing, extension or addition shall be hereafter constructed 
for that purpose unless the plan and specifications for its 
construction are first approved by the board. 
To visit certain Section 10. The board shall visit, by itself or its 

institutions, ' J 

etc * agents, at least once in every year, all places where the 

insane poor are supported, and ascertain from actual ex- 
amination and inquiry whether the laws with respect to 
such insane poor are properly observed ; and shall give 
such directions as will ensure correctness in the returns 
required in relation to the insane poor, and may use such 
means as may be necessary to collect all desired informa- 

Powers of, as tion in regard to their support. It shall have the same 

to state insane & rir 

poor, etc. powers relating to the state insane poor who are inmates 

of the hospitals and asylums for the insane within the 
Commonwealth and their property as are vested in towns 
and overseers of the poor in reference to paupers sup- 
ported or relieved by towns. The board may, moreover, 
when it has reason to believe that any insane person is 
deprived of suitable treatment and is confined in an alms- 
house or other place, make application for the commit- 



APPENDIX. 79 

merit of such person to a state insane hospital, according 
to the provisions of law. 

Section 11. The board may transfer insane pauper To make cer- 

. . . tain transfers 

inmates, including those committed under provisions con- of insane per- 
sons, etc. 
tained in section fifty of chapter eighty-seven of the Pub- 
lic Statutes, section fifteen of chapter two hundred and 
thirteen of the Public Statutes, sections sixteen and nine- 
teen of chapter two hundred and fourteen of the Public 
Statutes and sections ten, twelve and fourteen of chapter 
two hundred and twenty-two of the Public Statutes, from 
any one of the state hospitals or asylums for the insane to 
another state hospital or asylum for the insane, and may 
transfer and commit inmates of the other state institutions 
to the state hospitals or asylums for the insane ; and it may 
send any such insane pauper inmates to any state or place 
where they belong, when the public interest or the necessi- 
ties of the inmates require such transfer. The names of 
the inmates so removed shall be entered upon the register 
of the hospital or asylum for the insane, together with the 
usual details of their history, and shall be recorded by the 
several superintendents as discharged by the board for 
the purpose of removal from the state ; but no transfer 
or commitment shall be made by the board of inmates of 
other state institutions to the state hospitals and asylums 
for the insane, except in accordance with the provisions 
of law regulating the commitment of insane persons. 

Section 12. The board, upon the application of the To make trans- 

director, manager or trustees of a private hospital or asy- persons to and 

lum for the insane, may transfer any inmate of such insti- asyhims, 

wticn etc* 
tution to another private institution, or to a state hospital 

or asylum for the insane, but no such transfer shall be 

made without the consent of the legal or natural guardian 

of such inmate. 

Section 13. The board shall act as commissioners in Toactascom- 

... . . ,. , ,, ,. e ., missionersin 

insanity, with power to investigate the question of the insanity, etc. 

insanity and condition of any person committed to any 
hospital or asylum for the insane, public or private, or re- 
strained of his liberty by reason of alleged insanity at any 
place within this Commonwealth, and shall discharge any 
person so committed or restrained if, in its opinion, such 
person is not insane, or can be cared for after such dis- 



80 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

charge without danger to others and with benefit to him- 
self or herself. 
To visit every Section 14. The board itself or any two of its mem- 

hospital and J 

asylum under k ers sna n yi s it every hospital and asylum under its super- 
its supervision j r j r 
at least twice vision at least twice a year, and shall carefully inspect 

every part of the institution visited, shall offer an oppor- 
tunity to every patient to hold an interview, shall inspect 
every certificate of commitment entered or filed since its 
or their last visitation, and shall enter in a book, provided 
for that purpose, minutes of the condition of the institu- 
tion at that time, of the patients therein, of the patients 
under restraint and their number, and any criticisms or 
observations that the board or visiting members may have 
to make, namely, as to the occupation, amusement or clas- 
sification of the patients, as to the cleanliness and sanitary 
condition of the institution, as to the diet of the patients, 
and any other matters that it or they may deem worthy of 
observation or criticism. 
P Sai e s n etc n to S Section 15. All patients in any hospital, asylum or 
wrSe free? 'to rece Pt a cle for the insane shall be allowed, subject to the 
board, etc. regulations of the board, to write freely to the board, and 
letters so written shall be forwarded, unopened, by the 
superintendent or person in charge of said hospital, asylum 
or receptacle for the insane, to the said board for such 
disposition as it shall deem right, and the said board may 
send any letters or other communications to any patients 
in any hospital, asylum or receptacle for the insane, when- 
ever it may deem proper so to do. 
Nurses to be Section 16. The nurses of the insane hospitals or 

employed m r 

ta aUents e t tc 'h s as y mms sna ^ ^ e employed, as far as practicable, in tak- 
pitais, etc. j n g anc \ transferring patients to and from institutions for 

the insane, instead of officers of the law. 
Superintend- Section 17. The superintendent or physician in charge 

CIlLj etc. j to 

notify board of f an y insane hospital or asylum shall immediately notify 

question as to J r j j j 

commitment, the said board if there is any question as to the propriety 
of the commitment of any person received therein, and 
said board, upon such notification, shall inquire into the 
sanity of such patient and into the question of the pro- 
priety of the commitment. 
unifornfsys 6 - Section 18. The board shall prescribe a uniform sys- 

counts a etc. *em of keeping accounts in the several state hospitals and 



APPENDIX. 81 

asylums under its supervision, and the same shall be 

adopted and used in those institutions. 

Section 19. All questions as to the sanity of inmates To have jurla- 

i * diction of ques- 

of the penal, reformatory and other institutions of the tions of sanity 

~ .... .. . of inmates of 

Commonwealth who present indications of insanity shall penal, etc., in- 
be referred to the board or its officers for determination. 

Section 20. The board shall prescribe the forms of Jovn^oTcel 
certificates required by law in the commitments of insane q^^in 6 " 
persons to hospitals, asylums and receptacles for the in- ^"aneSsoVs* 
sane and for the commitment of patients to the Massa- etc - 
chusetts hospital for dipsomaniacs and inebriates, and 
such forms when prescribed shall be the sole forms used 
in such commitments. 

Section 21. The board and the several boards of £° 1 m ^ u * r - 

terly with trus- 
trustees of the different state hospitals and asylums for Jfo^/Js^etc 
the insane shall meet quarterly for the purpose of consul- for in9an e, etc. 
tation and harmonious action. 

Section 22. The board is hereby authorized to dis- To have 

J authority to 

charge patients from the Massachusetts hospital for dipso- discharge and 

maniacs and inebriates, and to transfer the inmates of the tients from 

Massachusetts 
said hospital to other state institutions and the inmates of hospital for 

L dipsomaniacs, 

the other state institutions to the said hospital; but no etc. 

inmate of the other state institutions shall be transferred 

to said hospital unless he has been duly committed thereto 

in conformity with the provisions of law governing the 

commitment of patients to said hospital. 

Section 23. The board shall devise, if practicable, To devise sys. 

r tern to inform 

a system by which the board of trustees of the Massachu- trustees of 

J J t Massachusetts 

setts hospital for dipsomaniacs and inebriates shall be hospital for 

L L dipsomaniacs, 

informed specifically of the history of any person whom etc., as to rec 

1 J j j l ord of patients, 

it is proposed to commit to said hospital, and by which, etc. 
if possible, an investigation of the record of such patient 
shall be made by a probation officer, with a view to in- 
forming the court or magistrate prior to his deciding the 
question of commitment. 

Section 24. The word " lunatic," wherever it occurs Use of word 

" lunatic " 

in the names of the several hospitals and in the laws abrogated. 

relating to the insane, is hereby stricken out, and the 

term " insane " or "insane person " is substituted therefor. 

Section 25. All the powers possessed by and all the Transfer of 
... , , . certain powers 

duties incumbent upon the state board of lunacy and to board, etc. 



82 



CHABITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc, 



Board to re- 
port methods 
providing for 
care of insane 
by state, etc. 



Care, etc., of 
insane poor 
vested in the 
state. 



Insane poor to 
be committed 
to hospital, 
etc., main- 
tained by state 
or boarded out. 



charity, relative to the state hospitals and asylums for the 
insane and other asylums and receptacles for the insane, 
public or private, relative to insane persons and as com- 
missioners in lunacy, are hereby taken from the said state 
board of lunacy and charity and vested in the state board 
of insanity, and said state board of insanity is hereby 
authorized and empowered to assume and exercise the 
same. The said state board of insanity shall succeed to 
all the rights, powers and duties of the said state board 
of lunacy and charity in regard to all the insane poor 
placed in families by the latter board, and the care and 
custody of the same is hereby transferred to the said state 
board of insanity without further process of law. 

Section 26. The board shall report to the legislature 
on or before the first day of March in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-eight such method or methods as in 
its opinion shall be the best to provide for the care of the 
insane poor who, according to the provisions of this act, 
will be placed on the first day of October in the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety-eight in the care and custody 
of the Commonwealth. In such report the board shall 
include a statement of what building or buildings are 
needed to accommodate such insane persons and any other 
suggestions that may occur to it in relation thereto as 
advisable to present for the consideration of the legislature. 

Section 27. The care, custody and control of all in- 
sane persons who are supported at public expense is hereby 
vested in the Commonwealth, whether they have a settle- 
ment therein or not, and the Commonwealth shall relieve 
and support all such persons and defray the expenses 
thereof. 

Section 28. All insane persons dependent upon public 
charity within the Commonwealth, whether they have a 
settlement therein or not, shall be committed to some hos- 
pital, asylum or receptacle for the insane maintained by 
the Commonwealth ; but nothing herein contained shall 
prevent the state board of insanity from placing insane 
persons at board in accordance with the provisions of 
chapter three hundred and eighty-five of the acts of the 
year eighteen hundred and eighty-five. 



APPENDIX. 83" 

Section 20. The state board of insanity may trans- Board may 

^ J transfer insane 

fer all insane persons dependent upon public charity who persons from 

may, upon this act taking effect, be in institutions for the tionsforthe 
insane maintained by the several cities and towns of the 
Commonwealth, and who have settlements within those 
cities and towns, to the state hospitals, asylums and re- 
ceptacles for the insane. 

Section 30. The state board of insanity is hereby Board may 

take lands 
authorized to take by purchase or otherwise, in the name etc., ownedby 
~ cities for asy- 

and behalf of the Commonwealth, the whole or any part lumsforthe 

insane, 
of the lands and buildings owned by the several cities of 

the Commonwealth and established and maintained therein 
as asylums for the care and treatment of the insane, or 
may lease the same for such term and for such rent as the 
state board of insanity shall deem best. In the event of 
the taking of said lands and buildings by said board in 
the name and behalf of the Commonwealth, the said state 
board shall file in the registry of deeds for the county and 
district within which the said lands and buildings are situ- 
ated a description of the lands and buildings so taken, with 
a statement, signed by said board or a majority thereof, 
that the same are taken under the provisions of this act, in 
the name and behalf of the Commonwealth, and the act and 
time of filing thereof shall be deemed to be the act and time 
of the taking of such lands and buildings, and be a suf- 
ficient notice to all persons that the same have been so 
taken. The title to all the lands and buildings so taken 
shall vest absolutely in the Commonwealth and its assigns 
forever. The Commonwealth shall be liable to pay all 
damages which shall be sustained by any city by reason of 
the taking of such lands and buildings. Said state board 
shall have full power, subject to the approval of the gov- 
ernor and council, to settle by agreement or arbitration 
. the value of the lands and buildings taken as aforesaid, 
and if not so settled, the value may be assessed by a jury 
at the bar of the superior court for the county in which 
the lands and buildings are situated, upon petition to be 
filed in the office of the clerk of said court by the city 
owning said lands and buildings within one year after 
such taking and not afterwards. 



84 



CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc, 



Amendment. 
St. 1886, 298, 
§9. 



Amendment. 
St. 1885, 385, 
§3. 



Amendments. 



Section 31. Section nine of chapter two hundred and 
ninety-eight of the acts of the year eighteen hundred 
and eighty-six is hereby amended by striking out in the 
third line the words ' ' board of education " and inserting 
in place thereof the words " state board of insanity." 

Section 32. Section three of chapter three hundred 
and eighty-five of the acts of the year eighteen hundred 
and eighty-five, as amended by section four of chapter 
one hundred and one of the acts of the year eighteen 
hundred and eighty-six, is hereby amended by striking 
out the words " board of lunacy and charity" wherever 
they occur therein, and substituting therefor the words 
" state board of insanity." 

Section 33. The acts and parts of acts specified in 
the annexed schedule are hereby amended by striking out 
the words ' ' lunacy and charity " wherever they occur 
therein, and substituting in place thereof the word "in- 
sanity." 



Schedule of Acts and Parts of Acts amended. 

Public Statutes. 
Chapter 87, section 1, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, 

section 4, in the 1st line thereof. — Of lunacy and 

institutions for the insane. 
Chapter 87, section 12, as amended by statute 1894, chapter 195, 

in the 12th and 13th lines thereof. — Of lunacy 

and institutions for lunatics. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-four. 
Chapter 322, sections 7 and 9, as amended by statute 1886, chap- 
ter 101, section 4. — An act to establish a homeo- 
pathic hospital for the insane. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-five. 
Chapter 385, section 1, as amended by statute 1886, chapter 101, 
section 4. — An act providing for the care of cer- 
tain insane persons. 



One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-six. 

Chapter 298, sections 1 and 2. — An act concerning the Massa- 
chusetts school for the feeble-minded. 

Chapter 319, sections 1, 2, 3, as amended by statute 1890, chapter 
414, section 2. — An act concerning the commit- 
ment and custody of insane persons. 



APPENDIX. 85 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-seven. 
Chapter 346, section 2, as amended by statute 1896, chapter 482. 

— An act concerning commitments and transfers 
of the insane. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-nine. 
Chapter 414, section 16, as amended by statute 1891, chapter 158. 

— An act to establish the Massachusetts hospital 
for dipsomaniacs and inebriates. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-two. 

Chapter 425, section 4. — An act to provide for the building of 

an asylum for the chronic insane. 

One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ninety-five. 

Chapter 286, section 2. — An act relative to the commitment of 
insane persons. 

Chapter 390, sections 5 and 6. — An act to establish an asylum 
for insane criminals at Bridgewater and to regu- 
late commitments and removals to the same. 

Chapter 483, sections 10 and 11. — An act to establish the Massa- 
chusetts hospital for epileptics. 

Section 34. Chapter two hundred and thirty- four of Sg? e |i ofSt * 
the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-four is 
hereby repealed. 

Section 35. All the provisions of this act, except when to take 
those hereinafter enumerated, shall take effect upon the 
first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven ; but 
the members of the said state board may be appointed at 
any time after the passage of this act, and may appoint 
agents and officers and assign their duties before the said 
first day of July. The provisions of sections twenty- 
seven and twenty-eight shall take effect on the first day 
of October, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. 



Appendix C. 

An Act concerning the settlement op paupers. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1 . Legal settlements may be acquired in any Legal settle- 
ments, how 
city or town, so as to oblige such place to relieve and acquired. 

support the persons acquiring the same, in case tbey are 



86 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

poor and stand in need of relief, in the manner following 
and not otherwise, namely : — 
— -c First. Any person, male or female, of the age of 

twenty-one years, who resides in any place within this 
state for three years together, shall thereby gain a settle- 
ment in such place. 

Second. The provisions of the preceding clause shall 
apply to married women who have not a settlement de- 
rived by marriage under the provisions of the third clause, 
and to widows. 

Third. A married woman shall follow and have the 
settlement of her husband, if he has any within the state ; 
otherwise her own at the time of marriage, if she then 
had any, shall not be lost or suspended by the marriage. 

Fourth. Legitimate children, until they gain a settle- 
ment of their own, shall follow and have the settlement 
of their parents or surviving parent, or of the parent to 
whom such children are awarded in case of divorce, if the 
parent or parents have any settlement within the state. 

Fifth. Illegitimate children shall follow and have the 
settlement of their mother at the time of their birth if she 
then has any within the state ; but neither legitimate nor 
illegitimate children shall gain a settlement by birth in the 
place where they are born, if neither of their parents then 
has a settlement therein. 

Sixth. Any person who was duly enlisted and mus- 
tered into the military or naval service of the United 
States, as a part of the quota of any city or town in this 
Commonwealth, under any call of the president of the 
United States during the late civil war, or duly assigned 
as a part of the quota thereof after having been enlisted 
and mustered into said service, and who duly served for 
not less than one year, or died or became disabled from 
wounds or disease received or contracted while engaged 
in such service, or while a prisoner in the hands of the 
enemy, and his wife or widow and minor children, shall be 
deemed thereby to have acquired a settlement in such 
place ; and any person who would otherwise be entitled to 
a settlement under this clause, but who was not a part 
of the quota of any city or town, shall, if he served as a 
part of the quota of the Commonwealth, be deemed to 



APPENDIX. 87 

have acquired a settlement in the place where he actually 
resided at the time of his enlistment. But these provi- 
sions shall not apply to any person who was enlisted and 
received a bounty for such enlistment in more than one 
place, unless the second enlistment was made after an 
honorable discharge from the first term of service, nor 
to any person who has been proved guilty of wilful de- 
sertion, or who left the service otherwise than by reason 
of disability or an honorable discharge. 

Seventh. Upon the division of a city or town, every 
person having a legal settlement therein, but being ab- 
sent at the time of such division and not having acquired 
a legal settlement elsewhere, shall have his legal settle- 
ment in that place wherein his last dwelling-place or home 
happens to fall upon such division ; and when a new city 
or town is incorporated, composed of a part of one or 
more incorporated places, every person legally settled in 
the places of which such new city or town is so composed, 
and who actually dwells and has his home within the 
bounds of such new city or town at the time of its incor- 
poration, and any person duly qualified as provided in the 
sixth clause of this section, who, at the time of his enlist- 
ment, dwelt and had his home within such bounds, shall 
thereby acquire a legal settlement in such new place ; but 
no person residing in that part of a place which upon such 
division is incorporated into a new city or town, and hav- 
ing then no legal settlement therein, shall acquire any by 
force of such incorporation only ; nor shall such incor- 
poration prevent his acquiring a settlement therein within 
the time and by the means by which he would have gained 
it there if no such division had been made. 

Section 2. Nothing in the preceding section shall be settlement 
construed to give to any person the right to acquire a whitereceiv- 
settlement or to be in process of acquiring a settlement pauper, 
while receiving relief as a pauper, unless within three 
years from the time of receiving such relief he reimburses 
the cost thereof to the city or town furnishing the same. 

Section 3. No person who actually supports himself inability to 
and his family shall be deemed to be a pauper by reason etc., in hos- ' 

,. , . „ , . . „ ,.,-., , . Pital, etc., for 

of the commitment of his wife, child or other relative to insane not to 

, j. .... make one a 

a hospital or asylum for the insane or other institution pauper. 



88 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



Provision for 
persons who 
have begun to 
acquire settle- 
ments. 



Settlements to 
continue, etc. 



Acquired un- 
der laws in 
force prior to 
May 13, 1865. 



Lost by ab- 
sence from 
state for ten 
years, etc. 
Repeal of P. S 
83. 



When to take 
effect. 



of charity, reform or correction, by order of a court or 
magistrate, and of his inability to maintain such wife, 
child or relative therein; but nothing herein contained 
shall be construed to release him from liability for such 
maintenance. 

Section 4. No person who has begun to acquire a set- 
tlement by the laws in force at and before the time when 
this chapter takes effect, in any of the ways in which any 
time is prescribed for a residence, or for the continuance 
or succession of any other act, shall be prevented or 
delayed by the provisions hereof ; but he shall acquire a 
settlement by a continuance or succession of the same 
residence or other act, in the same time and manner as 
if the former laws had continued in force. 

Section 5. Except as hereinafter provided, every 
legal settlement shall continue till it is. lost or defeated 
by acquiring a new one within this state, and upon ac- 
quiring such new settlement all former settlements shall 
be defeated and lost. 

Section 6. All settlements acquired by virtue of any 
provision of law in force prior to the thirteenth day of 
May in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five are 
hereby defeated and lost, except where the existence of 
such settlement prevented a subsequent acquisition of set- 
tlement in the same place under the provisions of this act 
or under corresponding provisions in other statutes ex- 
isting prior to the passage hereof; and provided, that 
whenever a settlement acquired by marriage has been thus 
defeated the former settlement of the wife, if not defeated 
by the same provision, shall be thereby revived. 

Section 7. All persons absent from the state for ten 
years consecutively shall thereby lose their settlements. 

Section 8. Chapter eighty- three of the Public Stat- 
utes is hereby repealed, saving all acts done, or rights 
accruing, accrued or established, or proceedings, doings 
or acts ratified or confirmed, or suits or proceedings had 
or commenced before the repeal takes effect. 

Section 9. This act shall take effect upon the first 
day of January in the year eighteen hundred and ninety- 
eight. 



APPENDIX. 89 



Appendix D. 
An Act in relation to the Massachusetts hospital 

FOR DIPSOMANIACS AND INEBRIATES. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1 . The board of trustees of the Massachu- Trustees of 
setts hosDital for dipsomaniacs and inebriates are hereby hospital for 

. dipsomaniacs, 

authorized, whenever in their judgment a patient has been etc., may 

lone: enough in the hospital to enable them to form an charge 

patients, 
opinion as to whether or not the treatment would benefit 

him, to finally discharge such patient. 

Section 2. This act shall take effect upon' its pas- 



Appe^dix E. 



An Act to create the state board of charity. 
Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1. The governor, with the advice and consent s ^ t r e it >0 h r ow >f 
of the council, shall appoint seven persons, who shall cou- organized, etc. 
stitute the state board of charity. The persons so ap- 
pointed shall hold their office for seven years, provided 
the terms of office of the seven first appointed shall be so 
arranged that the term of one shall expire each year. All 
vacancies in said board, whether occurring by expiration 
of term or otherwise, shall be filled by the governor, with 
the advice and consent of the council. One of the per- 
sons so appointed shall be designated by the governor 
with the advice and consent of the council as the secre- 
tary of the board, who shall devote his entire time to the 
performance of the duties of his office, and shall receive 
a salary of thirty-five hundred dollars a year and his ex- 
penses actually incurred in the performance of his duties. 
The other members of the board, including the chairman, 
who shall be designated by the governor with the advice 
and consent of the council, shall receive no salaries, but 
shall be paid only their necessary expenses actually in- 
curred in the performance of their duties. The members 



90 



CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



To appoint 
agents, etc. ; 
make by-laws 
etc. 



of the board may be removed by the governor with the 
advice and consent of the couDcil for cause. 

Section 2. The board shall have the power to ap- 
point such agents and subordinate officers as it may deem 
requisite, and to fix their compensation, subject to the 
approval of the governor, and the amount paid for the 
salaries of officers and agents employed by the board shall 
not exceed the sum appropriated by the legislature for 
this purpose ; and the board may assign any of its powers 
and duties to agents appointed for the purpose, and may 
execute any of its functions by such agents or by com- 
mittees appointed from and by said board. The board 
shall be provided with rooms at the expense of the state, 
and shall hold meetings each month on a day fixed by 
itself and at such other times as may be needful. It shall 
make its own by-laws, and shall make a report of its 
doings to the governor and council on or before the thirty- 
first day of December in each year, such report being 
made up to the thirtieth day of September inclusive. 
Annual report. Section 3. The board shall embody in its report a 
properly classified and tabulated statement of the receipts 
and expenses of the said board and of each of the several 
state institutions under its supervision for the said year, 
and a corresponding classified and tabulated statement of 
their estimates for the year ensuing, with its opinion as to 
the necessity or expediency of appropriations in accord- 
ance with said estimates. Said report shall also present 
a concise review of the work of the several institutions 
under its supervision for the year preceding, with such 
suggestions and recommendations as to said institutions 
and as to the general charitable interests of the Common- 
wealth as may be deemed expedient. 

Section 4. The board shall prepare, from the returns 
made by the overseers of the poor of the several towns, 
tables of all the sane poor supported by towns, and shall 
print in its annual report the most important information 
thus obtained. The board shall prescribe to the superin- 
tendents of the several institutions under its supervision 
the form for statistical returns to be made by them in their 
annual reports in relation to the sex, age and nativities of 
the inmates and the places from which they were sent. 



To prepare 
tables, and to 
prescribe cer- 
tain forms. 



APPENDIX. 91 

It shall also prescribe the form of certificate required of 
mayors of cities or overseers of the poor of towns when a 
pauper is sent therefrom to any one of the state institu- 
tions under its supervision, which certificate shall contain 
such inquiry in relation to the age, parentage, birthplace, 
former residence of, and other facts relating to the sane 
pauper person as the board may deem necessary, to which 
mayors and overseers of the poor shall render true 
answers, so far as they are able, before the sane poor 
person is received into any one of the said institutions. 
The several cities and towns shall be furnished by the 
board with blank forms for said certificates. 

Section 5. The board shall have the general super- To have gen- 

cr&l super- 

vision of the sane poor at the state almshouse and at the vision of 

rprtnin insfci» 

state farm until such time as the latter shall be placed tutions, etc. 
under the supervision of the commissioners of prisons, of 
the Lyman school for boys and of the Industrial school 
for girls. It shall also have the general supervision of 
the department for children, the county and municipal 
reformatories and homes for children, city and town 
almshouses, tramp houses and receptacles for tramps or 
vagrants, and it shall visit the state institutions above 
named at least as often as once a month. 

Section 6. The board shall visit at least once in every To visit places 

n i i ,i - , -. where state 

year all places where the state sane poor are supported, sane poor are 

and ascertain from actual examination and inquiry whether 
the laws in regard to such poor persons are properly 
observed, and shall give such directions as will ensure 
correctness in the returns required in relation to pau- 
pers ; and it shall have the same powers relating to 
the state sane poor who are inmates of the state alms- 
house and to their property as are vested in towns and 
overseers of the poor in reference to paupers supported or 
relieved by towns. 

Section 7. The board shall have charge of the inter- To have charge 
ests of the state upon the subject of charity generally, state upon 
and shall investigate the causes of pauperism and existing charity, etc. 
and proposed methods and practices in the administration 
of relief of the poor. It shall publish from time to time 
information on the work of public and private charitable 
agencies in other states and countries, so far as the same 



92 CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

may be applicable lo the needs of this Commonwealth, and 
it shall publish, periodically or otherwise, bulletins to be 
distributed to public officials and to other persons, and 
shall establish a bureau of information for persons en- 
gaged or interested in public or private charities, and 
shall also promote all measures designed to procure a 
uniform policy in the treatment of tramps and vagrants 
throughout the Commonwealth. 
qnestfon?of e Section 8. The board shall determine all questions 
thepoor"etc. relating to the settlement or non-settlement of the state 
poor coming under the control of the state institutions 
under its supervision and under the supervision of the 
state board of insanity, aud shall administer the laws of 
settlement relating to the support of the state sane poor 
by cities and towns, and shall prosecute all cases of bas- 
tardy of non-settled persons. 
SiSateso? cer- Section 9 . The board may transfer sane pauper in- 
tton8 ln etc? U mates from one state institution under its supervision to 
another, and may send such paupers to any state or place 
where they belong, when the public interest or the necessi- 
ties of the inmates require such transfer, 
certai^instttu- Section 10. The trustees of the several institutions 
account of^ under the supervision of the board shall annually on the 
state board* thirtieth day of September cause to be made and sent to 
etc * the board an accurate account of the stock and supplies 

on hand and the amount and value thereof at the institu- 
tions, under the following heads : live stock on the farm, 
produce of the farm on hand, carriages and agricultural 
implements, machinery and mechanical fixtures, beds and 
bedding in the inmates' department, other furniture in the 
inmates' department, personal property of the state in the 
superintendent's department, ready-made clothing, dry 
goods, provisions and groceries, drugs and medicine, fuel, 
library. 

£?«* o V i 8 e Q a ^ d Section 1 1 . All plans or estimates for new sites and 
Buggest as to r 

plans and esti- new buildings, for the extension, alteration or repair of 

mates for new & ' ' 1 

buildings, etc. existing buildings, for the arrangement of grounds or sys- 
tems of sewerage, or for heating with reference to build- 
ings which are, or will be when completed, subject to the 
visitation of the board, shall before adoption be submitted 
to the board for its advice and suggestion. 



APPENDIX. 93 

Section 12. The state board of lunacy and charity is state board of 

-i 11 lunacy and 

hereby abolished, and all the powers possessed by and all charity aboi- 
J r r- ./ ished, etc. 

the duties incumbent upon the board so abolished relative 
to the state almshouse, state farm, the Lyman school for 
boys and the industrial school for girls, and other charita- 
ble interests and institutions, except where otherwise ex- 
pressly provided, and relative to the sane poor within the 
Commonwealth, are hereby vested in the said board of 
charity, and all the laws applying to the above duties and 
powers of the said state board of lunacy and charity shall 
apply to the said state board of charity. 

Section 13. Section eighteen of chapter eighty-four Amendments. 
as amended by section one of chapter ninety of the acts 
of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-one, in the 
twelfth line thereof ; section two of chapter eighty-five, 
in the fourth line thereof ; section one of chapter eighty- 
six, in the third line thereof ; section four of chapter 
eighty-eight, in the first line thereof ; section sixty-eight 
of chapter two hundred and twenty, in the eighth line 
thereof, of the Public Statutes, all as amended by section 
four of chapter one hundred and one of the acts of the 
year eighteen hundred and eighty-six; section four of 
chapter two hundred and ninety-seven of the acts of the 
year eighteen hundred and eighty-four, the latter as 
amended by section four of chapter one hundred and one 
of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six, 
in the third line thereof ; section two of chapter two hun- 
dred and ninety-two of the acts of the year eighteen hun- 
dred and eighty-seven, in the first line thereof ; section 
two of chapter two hundred and seventy-eight of the acts 
of the year eighteen hundred and ninety, in the fifth line 
thereof, — are hereby amended by striking out the words 
u lunacy and," wherever they occur in said lines. 

Section 14. Section nine of chapter seventy-nine of Repeal. 

1 J P. S. 79, § 9. 

the Public Statutes, as amended by chapter three hun- 
dred and sixty-seven of the acts of the year eighteen 
hundred and eighty- seven, is hereby repealed. 

Section 15. This act shall take effect on the first day When to 

take effect, 
of July in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven ; 

but the members of said state board of charity may be 



94 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



appointed at any time after the passage of this act, and 
may appoint agents and officers and assign their duties be- 
fore the said first day of July. 



Appendix F. 



State to main- 
tain jails and 
houses of cor- 
rection, etc. 



State board 
may take cer- 
tain lands, etc. 



An Act giving the state control op all prisons. 
Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1. The jails and houses of correction now 
maintaiued by the several counties shall be hereafter main- 
tained by the Commonwealth. The cost of such mainten- 
ance shall be paid from the treasury of the Commonwealth, 
and all money received by any jailer, superintendent or 
master of a house of correction, which under existing 
laws would be payable to the treasurer of the county, shall 
be paid into the treasury of the Commonwealth. 

Section 2. The state board of prison commissioners 
is hereby authorized to take by purchase or otherwise, in 
the name and behalf of the Commonwealth, the whole or 
any part of the lands and buildings owned by the several 
counties and used for and in connection with the jails and 
houses of correction thereof. Said board shall file in the 
registry of deeds for the county and district within which 
the property to be taken is situated, and cause to be re- 
corded therein, a description of any lands and buildings 
so taken as certain as is required in an ordinary convey- 
ance of land, with a statement, signed by said board or a 
majority thereof, that the same are taken under the pro- 
visions of this act, in the name and behalf of the Common- 
wealth, and the act and time of filing thereof shall be the 
act and time of the taking of such lands and buildings 
and be sufficient notice to all persons that the same have 
been so taken. The title to all lands and buildings so 
taken shall vest absolutely in the Commonwealth and its 
assigns forever. The Commonwealth shall be liable to 
pay all damages which shall be sustained by any county 
by reason of the taking of such lands and buildings. 
Said board shall have full power, subject to the approval 
of the governor and council, to settle by agreement or 
arbitration the value of the lands and buildings so taken, 



APPENDIX. 95 

and if not so settled, the value may be assessed by a jury 
at the bar of the superior court for the county in which 
the lands and buildings taken are situated, upon petition 
to be tiled by the county commissioners for that county in 
the office of the clerk of said court within one year of said 
taking and not afterwards. 

Section 3. The officers of each of said iails and officers of jails 

J and houses of 

houses of correction so belonging to the Commonwealth, correction. 

when separate, shall be one superintendent, one deputy 
superintendent, one chaplain and one physician, and such 
other officers as may be approved by the state board of 
prison commissioners. When the jail and house of cor- 
rection are in one and the same building there may be one 
set of officers for both of said institutions. 

Section 4. The superintendent, the physician and the Officers, how 

. appointed, 

chaplain for each of said prisons shall be appointed by 

the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, 

upon the nomination of the state board, and shall hold 

office during the pleasure of the governor and council. 

Section 5. All other officers of the said prisons shall Subordinate 

^ officers, how 

be appointed by the superintendent, subject to the ap- appointed, 
proval of the state board, and shall hold their offices dur- 
ing the pleasure of the superintendent and the state board. 
In case of a disagreement between the superintendent and 
the commissioners in relation to the removal of such 
officer, the subject may be referred to the governor and 
council, who may make such removal. 

Section 6. The salaries of the superintendent, deputy Salaries of 

J officers, 
superintendent, chaplain and physician shall be fixed in 

each case by the state board, subject to the approval of 

the governor and council. All other officers shall receive 

such salary as the superintendent of each prison shall 

determine, subject to the approval of the state board. 

Section 7. The superintendent of each of the said superintend- 

1 ents to receive 

prisons shall receive and securely keep, according to the ^j^er^S 8 
terms of his sentence, any person committed thereto upon 
a sentence imposed by any court of the United States, or 
any prisoner sentenced by any such court who may be re- 
moved thereto from any other prison. 

Section 8. The superintendent of each of said pris- Superintend- 
i ii i .i -i i ii * ii ents to have 

ons shall have the custody, rule and charge of all the custody, etc., 

of prisoners. 



96 



CHAEITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



Powers, etc., 
of deputy 
when office of 
superintend- 
ent is vacant, 
etc. 



Deputy super- 
intendents to 
give bonds, 
When, etc. 



prisoners committed to said prison, and shall have the 
management and direction of the said prison under the 
rules and regulations made in regard thereto by the state 
board of prison commissioners. He shall, before entering 
upon the duties of his office, give to the treasurer of the 
Commonwealth a bond in such sum and with such sureties 
as the governor and council shall approve, conditioned that 
he shall faithfully account for all the money placed in his 
hands and for the faithful performance of his duties. He 
shall purchase all supplies necessary for the said prison, 
shall receive and pay out all moneys paid from the treas- 
ury of the Commonwealth for the support thereof, and 
shall have the custody and control of the buildings and 
property of the Commonwealth connected therewith. He 
shall cause to be kept in suitable books a full and accurate 
statement of the property, expenses, income and business 
of the said prison under his charge, and he shall make 
to the state board such reports as it shall require of him. 

Section 9. When the office of superintendent is 
vacant in any of said prisons, or the superintendent is 
absent from the prison under his control or unable to per- 
form the duties of his office, the deputy superintendent 
shall have the powers, perform the duties and be subject 
to the obligations and liabilities of the superintendent. 

Section 10. If the office of superintendent in any of 
said prisons becomes vacant, the state board may require 
the deputy superintendent to assume the duties of super- 
intendent, and to give a bond to the Commonwealth in a 
sum to be fixed by the state board, with sufficient sureties, 
to be approved by it, conditioned for the faithful per- 
formance of the duties incumbent upon him as deputy 
superintendent until the superintendent is appointed, and 
that he will faithfully account for all moneys which shall 
come into his hands. In such case and from the time said 
bond is approved, the deputy superintendent shall, so 
long as he performs the duties of superintendent, receive 
the salary of that officer in lieu of his salary as deputy 
superintendent. If the deputy superintendent does not 
give such bond when required, the state board may re- 
lieve him from the duties of superintendent and appoint a 
superintendent pro tempore, who shall give such bond 



APPENDIX. 97 

and shall have the power and authority to perform the 
duties and receive the salary of the superintendent until 
the superintendent is duly appointed and enters upon the 
discharge of the duties of the office. 

Section 11. The salaries and pay of all officers and facers 3 Sow 
employees in each of said prisons and all bills for supplies P aid » etc - 
and other expenditures for said prisons shall be paid 
monthly from the treasury of the Commonwealth, the 
same having first been certified by the auditor of the 
Commonwealth upon schedules accompanied by vouchers 
enumerating the bills and pay rolls. Said schedules shall 
be certified by the superintendent of each prison and 
approved in each case by the state board. A full record 
of the pay rolls and bills shall be kept by the superin- 
tendent of each prison, and the originals shall be deposited 
with the auditor of the Commonwealth as vouchers. 

Section 12. The superintendent of each prison shall f^ e f iB * e J d * 
annually make to the state board, on or before the first prison to make 

J annual report, 

day of November, a report of the affairs of the prison etc - 

under his control, including a detailed statement of the 
receipts and expenses of the year ending on the thirtieth 
day of September, with such other facts and such recom- 
mendations as he shall desire to present, and such report, 
together with the recommendations of the said state board, 
shall be included by it in its annual report. 

Section 13. All the powers possessed by and all the Powers, etc., 
duties incumbent upon the sheriffs of the several counties as to jails ,' etc.! 

ii , . .i ,. , „ . transferred to 

and the several jailers, masters of houses of correction superintend- 

-i -i » i « . -i -.i ents, etc. 

and superintendents of houses of industry and work- 
houses, and the institutions commissioner of the city of 
Boston, in relation to the custody, rule and charge of the 
jails, houses of correction, houses of industry and work- 
houses and of all prisoners therein, are hereby taken from 
said officers and vested in the superintendents of the jails 
and houses of correction hereinbefore provided for, and 
the said superintendents are hereby authorized and em- 
powered to assume and exercise the same, and all persons 
now in said jails, houses of correction, houses of indus- 
try or workhouses are hereby transferred to the custody, 
rule and charge of the said superintendents. This trans- 
fer shall not in any way impair the commitment of any 



or house of 
correction 
to e delivered 
to superin- 
tendent, etc. 



98 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

person committed to said jails, houses of correction, 
houses of industry and workhouses, but said persons shall 
be held by said superintendents in the prisons severally in 
their charge under the original warrant, mittimus or other 
process without further process of law. 

mittedto^aS Sectiox 14. All persons committed to a jail or house 
of correction by any process of law shall be delivered to 
the superintendent or other officer in charge of such jail 
or house of correction, and said superintendent shall 
thereupon assume the custody, rule and charge of such 
persons and shall be solely responsible therefor. 

effect! t0 take Section 15. This act, except section two thereof, 
shall take effect on the first day of October of the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. Section two shall 
take effect on the first day of July next. 



As Act to create a state board oe prison commis- 
sioners. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

state board of Section 1. The governor, with the advice and eon- 

pnson commis- g D 

sioners. how 5en t of the council, shall appoint five persons, who shall 



organized, etc. 



constitute the state board of prison commissioners. The 
persons so appointed shall hold their office for five years, 
provided the terms of office of the five first appointed shall 
be so arranged that the term of one shall expire each year. 
All vacancies in said board, whether occurring by expira- 
tion of term or otherwise, shall be filled by the governor, 
with the advice and consent of the council. Two of the 
persons so appointed shall receive a salary of five thou- 
sand dollars a year each and their expenses actually in- 
curred in the performance of their duties, and shall devote 
the whole of their time to the performance of their duties 
as members of said board. The other members of the 
board shall receive no salaries, but shall be paid only 
their necessary expenses actually incurred in the per- 
formance of their duties. The members of the board may 
be removed by the governor, with the advice and consent 
of the council, for cause. 



APPENDIX. 99 

Section 2. The board of commissioners of prisons is Board of com. 

missioners of 

hereby abolished. prisons aboi- 

J ished. 

Section 3. The state board of prison commissioners powers and 
shall have all the powers and duties and may exercise all board of 
the functions of the board abolished by section two of Sera? 011 
this act ; and said board may assign any of its powers 
and duties to agents appointed for the purpose, and may 
execute any of its functions by such agents or by com- 
mittees appointed from or by said board; and all laws 
applying to the board hereby abolished shall apply to the 
board created by section one of this act. 

Section 4. The board shall exercise all the powers id. 
and be subject to all the duties now incumbent upon the 
county commissioners of the several counties and the insti- 
tutions commissioner of the city of Boston relating to 
the release of prisoners on permits to be at liberty. The 
said board shall, moreover, have all the powers and be 
subject to all the duties and may exercise all the func- 
tions heretofore possessed by and incumbent upon the 
county commissioners of the several counties and the said 
institutions commissioner in regard to jails and houses of 
correction which have not been elsewhere expressly given 
by law to the superintendents of the several jails and 
houses of correction. 

Section 5. The board shall have the general super- Board to have 

1 supervision of 

vision of all the jails and houses of correction of the jails, etc. 
Commonwealth, and shall have the same powers and be 
subject to the same duties with regard to such prisons 
in all respects as they will have and be subject to in re- 
gard to the other prisons of the Commonwealth when this 
act shall take effect. 

Section 6. The board shall present to the legislature Board to 

present to 
during the month of February next a report upon the best legislature 

° j r i during Febru- 

method of classifying and using the prisons of the several ary next report 

J ° or- upon classify- 

counties regardless of county lines, and of classifying the ing prisoners, 

inmates of said prisons, with a view to securing as far as 

possible a separation of the different classes of prisoners 

and the most efficient administration of the prisons, the 

separation of the sexes, having regard to economy of 

management and the well-being of the prisoners. They 



100 



CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



Amendment. 
P. S. 220, § 66. 



Amendment. 

P. S. 220, §67. 



shall also present a draft of a bill which will provide for 
carrying out the suggestions of said report. 

Section 7. Section sixty-six of chapter two hundred 
and twenty of the Public Statutes is hereby amended in 
the first and second lines thereof by striking out the 
words ' ' county commissioners or directors of a house of 
correction, house of industry or workhouse," and inserting 
in place thereof the words f ' state board of prison com- 
missioners," and in the third line thereof by striking out 
the word "there" and inserting after the word "con- 
fined " the words "in a house of correction, house of 
industry or workhouse," in the sixth line thereof by strik- 
ing out the word "they" and inserting in place thereof 
"said board," and in the twelfth line therereof by strik- 
ing out the words "commissioners or directors" and in- 
serting in place thereof the words " the said state board," 
so that said section shall read as follows : ' ' Section 66, 
When it appears to the state board of prison commis- 
sioners that a person confined in a house of correction, 
house of industry or workhouse on conviction before a 
trial justice, or police, district, or municipal court, of either 
of the offences mentioned in section twenty-nine of chap- 
ter two hundred and seven, has reformed and is willing 
and desirous to return to an orderly course of life, said 
state board may by a written order discharge him from 
confinement, upon condition that if he shall at any time 
thereafter be convicted of any crime he shall serve the 
remainder of his original sentence in addition to the sen- 
tence then imposed. A person committed by the superior 
court for either of said offences may be discharged by 
said court upon recommendation of the said state board 
upon the same condition." 

Section 8. Section sixty-seven of chapter two hun- 
dred and twenty of the Public Statutes, as amended by 
chapter two hundred and forty-five of the acts of the year 
eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and by section sixteen 
of chapter four hundred and forty-nine of the acts of the 
year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, is hereby amended 
in the first and second lines thereof by striking out the 
words "county commissioners or in the city of Boston 



APPENDIX. 101 

the institutions commissioner," and inserting in place 
thereof the words " state board of prison commissioners," 
in the third line by striking out the word "the" before 
"house" and inserting in place thereof the word "a," in the 
fourth line thereof by striking out the words "and the 
directors," in the fifth line by striking out the words " may 
discharge any person committed to such institution," in 
the ninth and tenth lines thereof by striking out the words 
"commissioners and directors" and inserting in place 
thereof the words " state board," and in the nineteenth line 
by striking out the words ' ' commissioners or directors " 
and inserting in place thereof the words " state board," 
so that the same shall read as follows : ' i Section 67. 
After six months from the time of sentence the state 
board of prison commissioners may discharge any person 
committed to a house of correction, workhouse or house of 
industry under section thirty-seven of chapter two hundred 
and seven, upon being satisfied that the convict has re- 
formed, or may bind out such person for any term during 
the period of sentence as an apprentice or servant to any 
inhabitant of this state ; and said state board and the mas- 
ter, mistress, apprentice and servant shall respectively 
have all the rights and privileges and be subject to all the 
duties set forth in chapter one hundred and forty-nine in 
the same manner as if such binding were made by the 
overseers of the poor ; and the relations between the par- 
ties shall not be affected by the age of the party bound. 
If the master or mistress is discharged from the contract 
of service or apprenticeship as provided in said chapter, 
the person bound shall be returned to the place of con- 
finement and serve out the original sentence if any portion 
thereof is unexpired, but the state board shall not be liable 
to the costs of the process provided in said chapter." 

Section 9. Section sixty-eight of chapter two hun- Amendment. 

PS 220 S 68. 

dred and twenty of the Public Statutes, as amended by 
chapter two hundred and forty-five of the acts of the year 
eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and by section sixteen 
of chapter four hundred and forty-nine of the acts of the 
year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, is hereby amended 
by striking out the words " county commissioners or in 



102 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

the county of Suffolk the institutions commissioner," and 
inserting in place thereof the words ' ' state board of prison 
commissioners," in the fourth line thereof by striking out 
the words '' in their respective jurisdictions," in the fifth 
line thereof by striking out the word " they " and inserting 
in place thereof the words " the said state board," in the 
sixth line thereof by striking out the words ' ' the board 
that has issued such permit " and inserting in place thereof 
the words " said state board," and in the ninth line thereof 
by striking out the words ' ' commissioners of prisons " and 
inserting in place thereof the words ' ' state board of prison 
commissioners," so that said section shall read as follows : 
" Section 68. When it appears to the state board of 
prison commissioners that a person imprisoned for drunk- 
enness in a jail, house of correction or other place of con- 
finement has reformed, said state board may issue to him 
a permit to be at liberty during the remainder of his term 
of sentence and said state board may revoke the same at 
any time previous to the expiration of the original term 
of sentence. The state board of charity and the state 
board of prison commissioners may issue to persons 
confined for like offences in the state farm and the reform- 
atory prison for women respectively the permits author- 
ized by this section, and may revoke the same. 
p!s!mm69. Section 10. Section sixty-nine of chapter two hundred 
and twenty of the Public Statutes, as amended by chapter 
two hundred and forty-five of the acts of the year eighteen 
hundred and eighty-nine, and section sixteen of chapter 
four hundred and forty-nine of the acts of the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety-five, is hereby amended in 
the first, second and third lines thereof by striking out 
the words " county commissioners of the county in which 
he is appointed or in Suffolk county of the institutions 
commissioner" and inserting in place thereof the words 
" state board or prison commissioners," in the thirteenth 
line thereof by striking out the words " county com- 
missioners or the said board of directors" and inserting 
in place thereof the words "said state board," and by 
striking out in the same line the word "they" and in- 
serting in place thereof the word "it," in the fifteenth 



APPENDIX. 103 

line thereof by striking out the word " they" and insert- 
ing in place thereof the word M it," in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth lines thereof by striking out the words 
''county commissioners or the said board of directors" 
and inserting in place thereof the words ' « said state 
board," and in the nineteenth line thereof by striking out 
the word " them" and inserting in place thereof the word 
"it," so that the said section shall read as follows: 
"Section 69. A probation officer may, with the consent 
of the state board of prison commissioners , investigate 
the case of any person imprisoned in a jail or house of 
correction for an offence other than a felony upon sentence 
of not more than six months or upon a longer sentence of 
which not more than six months remain unexpired, with 
a view to ascertaining the probability of the reformation 
of such person if released from imprisonment. If after 
such investigation the probation officer recommends the 
release of the prisoner, and the court which imposed the 
sentence, or in case of the superior court, the district 
attorney, certifies a concurrence in such recommendation, 
the said state board may, if it deem it expedient, release 
him upon probation, upon such conditions as it deems 
best and may require a bond for the fulfilment of such 
conditions. The surety upon such bond may at any 
time take and surrender his principal, and the said state 
board may at any time order any prisoner released by it 
upon probation to return to the prison from which he was 
released. This section shall not apply to persons held 
upon sentences of the courts of the United States. 

Section 11. Section seventy-one of chapter two hun- Amendment. 

J r P. S. 220, § 71. 

dred and twenty of the Public Statutes is hereby amended 
in the first line thereof by striking out the words ' ' county 
commissioners " and inserting in place thereof the words 
"said state board." 

Section 12. This act shall take effect on the first day when to take 

J effect. 
of July in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, 

provided that the members of said board may be ap- 
pointed at any time after the passage of this act, and 
may appoint agents and officers and assign their duties 
before the said first day of July. 



104 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 

An Act in relation to issuing to prisoners permits to 
be at liberty. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 
s\ m i e 884T255° f Section 1. Section thirty- three of chapter two hun- 
§ 33, dred and fifty- five of the acts of the year eighteen 

hundred and eighty-four is hereby amended in the first 
and second lines thereof by striking out the words 4 1 com- 
missioners of prisons " and inserting in place thereof the 
words " state board of prison commissioners," and in the 
third and fifth lines thereof by striking out the word 
' 'they" wherever it occurs therein and inserting in place 
thereof the word "it" and by striking out the following 
words in said section, "provided, however, that no permit 
shall be issued to a person transferred or removed from 
the state prison to said reformatory except with the ap- 
proval of the governor and council," so that said section 
when amended shall read as follows : ' ' Section 33. 
When it shall appear to the state board of prison commis- 
sioners that any person imprisoned in said reformatory 
has reformed, it may issue to him a permit to be at liberty 
during the remainder of his term of sentence upon such 
conditions as it deems best, and it may revoke said per- 
mit at any time previous to its expiration. The violation 
by the holder of a permit granted as aforesaid of any of 
the terms or conditions of such permit or the violation of 
any of the laws of this Commonwealth shall of itself make 
void said permit." 
aPflS^^k Section 2. Section two of chapter four hundred and 

ot. leS7» C 435, L 

§ 2 * thirty-five of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and 

eighty-seven is hereby amended in the first and second 
lines thereof by striking out the words ' ' governor and 
council" and inserting in place thereof the words " state 
board of prison commissioners," and in the third, fifth 
and sixth lines thereof by striking out the word "they" 
wherever it occurs in said lines and inserting in place 
thereof the word " it," so that said section shall read as 
follows: " Section 2. When it shall appear to the state 
board of prison commissioners that any person sentenced 
to the state prison as an habitual criminal has reformed, it 
may issue to him a permit to be at liberty during the re- 



APPENDIX. 105 

mainder of his term of sentence upon such conditions as 
it deems best, and it may revoke said permit at any time 
previous to its expiration. The violation by the holder of 
a permit granted as aforesaid of any of the terms or con- 
ditions of such permit or the violation of any of the laws of 
this Commonwealth shall of itself make void said permit." 

Section 3. Section three of chapter four hundred and swsst^c^ 
thirty-five of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and § 3 - 
eighty- seven is hereby amended in the third and fourth 
lines thereof by striking out the words " governor shall 
issue his warrant " and inserting in place thereof the fol- 
lowing words " state board of prison commissioners shall 
issue an order," and in the fifth line thereof by striking 
out the word "warrant" and inserting in place thereof 
the words "order of arrest," so that said section as 
amended shall read as follows: " Section 3. When any 
permit granted under the provisions of the preceding sec- 
tion has been revoked or has become void as aforesaid, 
the state board of prison commissioners shall issue an 
order authorizing the arrest of the holder of said permit 
and his return to said state prison. Said order of arrest 
may be served by any officer authorized to serve criminal 
process in any county in this Commonwealth. The holder 
of said permit when returned to said state prison as afore- 
said shall be detained therein according to the terms of his 
original sentence, and in computing the period of his con- 
finement the time between his release upon said permit 
and his return to the state prison shall not be taken to be 
any part of the term of sentence." 

Section 4. Section one of chapter four hundred and £ m , e £ 5? me !& 

*■ St. 1894, C. 440, 

forty of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety- § L 
four, as amended by chapter two hundred and fifty- two of 
the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, is 
hereby amended by striking out the thirteenth line thereof. 

Section 5. Section two of chapter five hundred and £™endment 

1 St. 1895, c. 504, 

four of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety- § 2 - 
five is hereby amended in the ninth and tenth lines thereof 
by striking out the words ' ' without the approval of the 
governor and council nor." 

Section 6. This act shall take effect upon the first day 
of July next. 



106 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS, Etc. 



Appendix G. 

An Act to provide for the appointment of a proba* 
tion officer for the superior court. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Chief justice of Section 1. The chief justice of the superior court 

superior court J L 

may appoint may, if in his judgment it be deemed best, appoint one 
officer, etc. person to perform the duties of probation officer within 
the city of Boston under the jurisdiction of said court. 
Said probation officer shall hold his office during the 
pleasure of the said chief justice, and shall be subject to 
and governed by all the provisions of chapter three hun- 
dred and fifty-six of the acts of the year eighteen hundred 
and ninety-one and of all other laws affecting probation 
officers, in so far as the same may be applicable thereto. 
Sor court" or" Section 2. The clerk of the superior court for the 
noSceVf giye county of Suffolk shall, when an appointment is made 
appointment. un( j er this act, forthwith notify the commissioners of prisons 

of the name of the officer so appointed. 
mct^th st. 0n ' Section 3. The provisions of this act shall in no way 
1S91, c. 356, § 7. con fli c t ^vith the provisions of section seven of said chap- 
ter three hundred and fifty- six. 

Section 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. 



An Act to provide for the appointment of an addi- 
tional WOMAN PROBATION OFFICER IN THE MUNICIPAL 
COURT OF THE CITY OF BOSTON. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 
o?mun!3pai Section 1. The chief justice of the municipal court 
to app o f int° ston * tne C ^J °^ Boston ma T appoint an additional probation 
tion proba- °ffi cer > wno shall be a woman, and who shall be governed 



woman 



of municipal 

to" 

>pt 

tlu 

ian 

tion officer. D y a rj the provisions of chapter two hundred and seventy- 
six of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety- 
two. 

Section 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. 



APPENDIX. 107 



Appendix H. 

An Act to abolish the payment of a fine as a pun- 
ishment FOR DRUNKENNESS. 

Be it enacted, etc., as folloivs : 

Section 1. Section five of chapter four hundred and A ™ e "? me "i; 

r St. 1891, c 427. 

twenty-seven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and § 5 - 
ninety-one, as amended by chapter three hundred and three 
of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two 
and by chapter four hundred and forty-seven of the acts 
of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-three, is hereby 
amended by striking out all of said section after the word 
" file" in the twentieth line thereof. 
Section 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. 



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